This text is dropped at you by COMSOL.
As of late, nobody blinks an eye fixed at two-day, one-day, and even same-day package deal deliveries. Regardless of the plethora of localized achievement and distribution facilities which have cropped as much as meet the demand, supply vehicles nonetheless have to make significantly lengthy drives, typically over highways. To scale back gasoline and upkeep prices in addition to carbon emissions, firms are investing in electric trucks for his or her supply fleets. Whereas turning to electrical vehicles is a promising answer, the battery packs included into these automotive designs typically fall brief within the lifetime wanted to make long-distance freeway journey possible.
To assist overcome the problem of battery lifetime, a consortium of universities and trade companions included multiscale simulation and a customized simulation app into the battery manufacturing course of. The organizations concerned on this mission have been Aurobay, Resolvent, the European Fee, the Technical College of Denmark (DTU), Vinnova (the Swedish Company for Innovation Techniques), Innovation Fund Denmark, and Volvo Group Vans Operations.
The simulation app, constructed by Resolvent, a Denmark-based engineering consultancy that focuses on green energy, allows the R&D division at Volvo to simply check battery lifetime efficiency.
LaserWho?
The Multiscale Simulation of Laser Welding for Optimum Battery Pack Manufacturing mission — known as “LaserBATMAN” — was initiated in Could 2022 and wrapped up in Could 2025 (Ref. 1). Though BATMAN right here refers to battery manufacturing and never the well-known masked superhero, the targets for the mission additionally strove for greatness.
The LaserBATMAN mission aimed to optimize two key efficiency metrics for battery packs: robustness and lifelong (Ref. 1). One component of the battery manufacturing course of that impacts each of those metrics is the laser welding utilized in part becoming a member of processes (for instance, to attach battery cells in a pack through a busbar). If performed accurately, laser welding can positively affect battery life, but when performed incorrectly, laser welding can enhance the danger of battery degradation. Computational modeling can be utilized to research and predict the results of welding and becoming a member of processes at totally different phases of the manufacturing course of.
Martin Refslund Nielsen, former chief industrial officer and companion at Resolvent, defined that for this kind of multiphysics and multiscale downside, “COMSOL Multiphysics is simply the precise device.”
R&D Workflow for Multiscale Mannequin and App
The Resolvent staff used the COMSOL Multiphysics software program to review how laser welding impacts the electrochemistry and degradation of battery cells. A minimum of, that’s how the mission began.
“Ambitions grew,” Nielsen mentioned, explaining that the staff ended up modeling the efficiency of the whole battery, from cell to pack stage, and even “turned [the model] right into a design device in the long run”, in reference to the app.
After coaching the deep neural network of the battery mannequin, the staff constructed a customized simulation app to effectively optimize busbar tabs within the configuration of a battery pack.
First, the staff constructed an electrochemical mannequin of a battery cell by inputting the formulation for the related chemical response kinetics (Determine 2). The ensuing cell-layer mannequin was then fed enter information, and the output information was used to coach a deep neural community (DNN). With this reduced-order mannequin, the staff was capable of shortly achieve perception into cell conduct.
After coaching the DNN of the battery mannequin, the staff constructed a customized simulation app to effectively optimize busbar tabs within the configuration of a battery pack.
A “Device Inside a Device” for Busbar Weld Design
The totally different options of the simulation app, as described by Nielsen, embrace its choices to enter dimensions for the pack geometry (Determine 3), the variety of cells, and working circumstances equivalent to ambient temperature and cost–discharge present profiles. The app additionally makes it attainable to use a easy charging present and cargo custom-made cycles. Customers are then capable of see how the battery performs with every set of particular inputs.
Determine 3. The battery pack mannequin developed by Resolvent.COMSOL
One other necessary side of Resolvent’s app is the Busbar Weld Design Device button, which Nielsen described as “a device inside a device.” This button can be utilized to effectively calculate busbar weld efficiency after numerous cycles. After clicking the button, a window opens with choices for setting totally different parameters, together with the form of the weld, busbar thickness, and penetration depth of the laser (Determine 4).
“[This button] is attention-grabbing from a sturdy design perspective,” mentioned Nielsen. Customers can apply a variant to the enter parameters to see what occurs in manufacturing if the weld doesn’t attain far sufficient into the busbar.
Determine 4. Resolvent’s simulation app, displaying how sure parameters may be custom-made. The mannequin exhibits how the busbar weld is affected by a cooling airflow.COMSOL
“We actually get deep technical perception right here, and we are able to dimension the design within the candy spot. Deep technical perception can also be key to optimizing product efficiency,” Nielsen mentioned. For instance, if the outcomes counsel higher cooling, the staff might probably cut back the design by two battery cells and retain the identical efficiency, simply quantifying the tradeoff between cooling and setup.
Predicting Pack Efficiency
The app’s consumer interface additionally features a Compute Battery button, which can be utilized to see the temperature of the weld in a given state, the state of cost, and the stable–electrolyte interface (SEI) layer thickness (Determine 5). The outcomes might help the engineering staff additional decide if there may be room for optimization within the design. As an illustration, a consumer can apply a cooling circulate within the app and see if turbulence or standing air happens.
As defined by Nielsen, simulation apps supply extra constant evaluation and reporting, and the intuitiveness of customized apps makes it simpler to share data. “We’re in a a lot better place to optimize efficiency and enhance robustness,” mentioned Nielsen.
Determine 5. Temperature within the given state (left), state of cost (center), and SEI layer thickness (proper) within the battery pack.COMSOL
The customized simulation app developed by the LaserBATMAN consortium can be utilized to assist produce extra strong battery designs with ranges that may help freeway journey over longer distances with fewer failures — all whereas selling the usage of inexperienced power. A heroic mission certainly.
References
- “LaserBATMAN,” College of Skovde, accessed 08/21/2025, https://www.his.se/en/research/virtual-engineering/virtual-manufacturing-processes/LaserBatman/.
- R. Nielsen, “Keynote: Optimizing Lifetime and Robustness of Electrical Truck Batteries with Simulation Apps,” COMSOL Convention 2024 Florence, October 2024.
