Major vehicle manufacturers are committed to expand their electrified vehicle fleet in upcoming years to meet fuel efficiency goals. Understanding the effect of the charge/discharge cycle profiles on battery durability is important to the implementation of batteries in electrified vehicles and to the design of appropriate battery testing protocols. In this work, commercial high-power prismatic lithium ion cells were cycled using a pulse-heavy profile and a simple square-wave profile to investigate the effect of cycle profile on the capacity fade of the battery. The pulse-heavy profile was designed to simulate on-road conditions for a typical hybrid electric vehicle, while the simplified square-wave profile was designed to have the same charge throughput as the pulse-heavy profile, but with lower peak currents. The batteries were cycled until each battery achieved a combined throughput of 100 kAh. Reference Performance Tests were conducted periodically to monitor the state of the batteries through the course of the testing. The results indicate that, for the batteries tested, the capacity fade for the two profiles was very similar and was 11 % ± 0.5 % compared to beginning of life. The change in internal resistance of the batteries over the course of the testing was also monitored and found to increase 21% and 12% compared to beginning of life for the pulse-heavy and square-wave profiles respectively. Cycling tests on coin cells with similar electrode chemistries as well as development of a first principles, physics based model were done in order to understand the underlying cause of the observed degradation. The results from the coin cells and the model suggest that the loss of active material in the electrodes due to the charge transfer process is the primary cause of degradation while the loss of cyclable lithium due to side reactions plays a secondary role. These results also indicate that for high power cells, the capacity degradation associated with the charge-sustaining mode of operation can be studied with relatively simple approximations of complex drive cycles. / Ph. D. / Major vehicle manufacturers are committed to expand their electrified vehicle fleet in upcoming years to meet fuel efficiency goals. Understanding the effect of the charge/discharge cycle profiles on battery durability is important to the implementation of batteries in electrified vehicles and to the design of appropriate battery testing protocols. In this work, commercial lithium ion cells were tested using two profiles with the same energy transfer; a pulse-heavy profile to simulate on-road conditions for a typical hybrid electric vehicle, and a simplified square-wave profile with the same charge flow as the pulse-heavy profile, but with lower currents. Cycling tests on coin cells with similar electrode chemistries as well as development of a first principles, physics based model were done in order to understand the underlying cause of the degradation. The results suggest that the degradation observed is not dependent on the type of profile used. These results also indicate that for high power cells, the capacity degradation associated with the charge-sustaining mode of operation can be studied with relatively simple approximations of complex drive cycles.

abstract: Commercial Li-ion cells (18650: Li4Ti5O12 anodes and LiCoO2 cathodes) were subjected to simulated Electric Vehicle (EV) conditions using various driving patterns such as aggressive driving, highway driving, air conditioning load, and normal city driving. The particular drive schedules originated from the Environment Protection Agency (EPA), including the SC-03, UDDS, HWFET, US-06 drive schedules, respectively. These drive schedules have been combined into a custom drive cycle, named the AZ-01 drive schedule, designed to simulate a typical commute in the state of Arizona. The battery cell cycling is conducted at various temperature settings (0, 25, 40, and 50 °C). At 50 °C, under the AZ-01 drive schedule, a severe inflammation was observed in the cells that led to cell failure. Capacity fading under AZ-01 drive schedule at 0 °C per 100 cycles is found to be 2%. At 40 °C, 3% capacity fading is observed per 100 cycles under the AZ-01 drive schedule. Modeling and prediction of discharge rate capability of batteries is done using Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS). High-frequency resistance values (HFR) increased with cycling under the AZ-01 drive schedule at 40 °C and 0 °C. The research goal for this thesis is to provide performance analysis and life cycle data for Li4Ti5O12 (Lithium Titanite) battery cells in simulated Arizona conditions. Future work involves an evaluation of second-life opportunities for cells that have met end-of-life criteria in EV applications. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Engineering 2018

Abstract: This thesis addresses the problem of graceful degradation for air traffic management systems (ATMS). The graceful degradation is the process by which the safety of the airspace is ensured in the event of failures or operational degradation in the system. After listing the main areas where failures and degradation can affect the ATMS, an ontology of the ATMS is proposed. The ontology allows to introduce failures at different levels, track their propagation throughout the system, and measure their operational impact. Then, two operational degradations are studied: The first degradation studied is a reduction in the landing capacity at San Francisco International Airport. The aircraft queueing process for terminal area is modeled and optimized to ensure a graceful degradation. The second degradation encompasses Communication, Navigation and Surveillance systems failures. The graceful degradation is ensured by increasing the spacing distance between aircraft, using novel algorithms of avoidance under uncertainties. Those algorithm also serve as probes to compare the degradation capabilities of different traffic configurations such as Miles-In-Trail and Free-Flight arrivals. Finally, this thesis focuses on monitoring the airspace for potential degradation. The ability and the difficulty of en-route traffic configuration are evaluated using degradation maps. Those maps can be used controller to rapidly and efficiently steer traffic from nominal mode of operations to mode of operations under abnormal conditions. Finally, a monitoring tool for terminal area is presented: the conformance of current flight to pre-identified typical operations is determined in real time. As the number of non-conforming aircraft increases, the complexity seen by air traffic controllers increases, and can become a threat for the airspace safety.