Competing forces in liquid metal electrodes and batteries

JOURNAL OF POWER SOURCES

卷:378

Article

Ashour, Rakan F.¹  Kelley, Douglas H.¹  Salas, Alejandro^2,3  Starace, Marco²  Weber, Norbert²  Weier, Tom² 

[1] Univ Rochester, 235 Hopeman Bldg, Rochester, NY 14627 USA

[2] Helmholtz Zentrum Dresden Rossendorf, Bautzner Landstr 400, Dresden, Germany

[3] Inst Tecnol & Estudios Super Monterrey, Monterrey, Mexico

关键词: Liquid metal battery;    Electro-vortex flow;    Internally heated convection;    Swirl flow;    Rayleigh-Benard convection;   

DOI  :  10.1016/j.jpowsour.2017.12.042

来源: Elsevier

【 摘 要 】

Liquid metal batteries are proposed for low-cost grid scale energy storage. During their operation, solid inter metallic phases often form in the cathode and are known to limit the capacity of the cell. Fluid flow in the liquid electrodes can enhance mass transfer and reduce the formation of localized intermetallics, and fluid flow can be promoted by careful choice of the locations and topology of a battery's electrical connections. In this context we study four phenomena that drive flow: Rayleigh-Renard convection, internally heated convection, electro-vortex flow, and swirl flow, in both experiment and simulation. In experiments, we use ultrasound Doppler velocimetry (UDV) to measure the flow in a eutectic PbBi electrode at 160 degrees C and subject to all four phenomena. In numerical simulations, we isolate the phenomena and simulate each separately using OpenFOAM. Comparing simulated velocities to experiments via a UDV beam model, we find that all four phenomena can enhance mass transfer in LMBs. We explain the flow direction, describe how the phenomena interact, and propose dimensionless numbers for estimating their mutual relevance. A brief discussion of electrical connections summarizes the engineering implications of our work.

【 授权许可】

Free