Model of a structural battery and its potential for system level mass savings

Structural batteries are materials that can carry mechanical load while storing electrical energy. This is achieved by combining the properties of carbon fiber composites and lithium ion batteries. There are many design parameters for a structural battery and in order to understand their impact and importance, this paper presents a model for multifunctional performance. The mechanical behavior and electrical energy storage of the structural battery are matched to the mechanical behavior of a conventional carbon fiber composite, and the electrical energy storage of a standard lithium ion battery. The latter are both monofunctional and have known performance and mass. In order to calculate the benefit of using structural batteries, the mass of the structural battery is compared to that of the two monofunctional systems. There is often an inverse relationship between the mechanical and electrochemical properties of multifunctional materials, in order to understand these relationships a sensitivity analysis is performed on variables for the structural battery. This gives new insight into the complex multifunctional design of structural batteries. The results show that it is possible to save mass compared to monofunctional systems but that it depends strongly on the structure it is compared with. With improvements to the design of the structural battery it would be possible to achieve mass saving compared to state-of-the-art composite laminates and lithium ion batteries.