(230a) Digital Manufacturing of Lithium-Ion Battery Electrodes Via Discrete Element Method (DEM)

Lithium-ion batteries are now widely used in the energy storage field, and most of the materials used to manufacture lithium-ion battery electrodes are particulates in form. In this work, Discrete Element Method (DEM) simulations are used to investigate the manufacturing process for lithium-ion battery electrodes such as dry powder deposition and calendering processes. For the calendering process, electrode mechanical and structural properties were investigated by using DEM. Detailed stress and microstructural evolutions at microscopic particle scale were analyzed. Inspired by the bimodal pore size distribution of electrode structures, a random field method is proposed to generate the multiple phase porous carbon binder domain (CBD) structures. By using advanced numerical approach, a process-microstructure-performance linkage is established. The results presented here demonstrate that DEM provides a highly promising way to digitalise the manufacturing process of the next generation battery electrodes.