I wanted to research the safety of Li-ion batteries, which are used in numerous everyday items (phones, laptops, etc). They are great reusable batteries as they can hold a lot of energy while also being able to release the energy quickly. Unfortunately, they can also be quite dangerous if their internal temperature rises above a certain degree. Reusable batteries are extremely beneficial and can reduce the amount of waste we produce.
The planned action is to virtually simulate internal battery conditions in different scenarios. The three different scenarios are in a Tesla Model 3, a Macbook Air Pro, and an iPhone 12 Pro. We can simulate the Li-ion battery in these devices using PyBaMM, a subset of Google Colab, which allows us to use python to code different scenarios.
It went well, as we were able to get concrete data to write a report on. This data could be used as a start in determining the safety limits of any product using a Li-ion rechargeable battery as long as the charge and discharge rates are known.
I learned how useful our new technologies and computer science can be for modeling problems we face to find solutions. Without a digital way to code for the Li-ion battery situations, we would not be able to complete this project. It would be extremely dangerous to run a device until it reaches its maximum capabilities, so PyBaMM and Google Colab were extremely helpful in that sense.
I would definitely try to do more trials. We only simulated the temperature levels of a Li-ion battery for an iPhone, Tesla, and MacBook Air Pro, but our data could be improved if we did a larger variety of devices and maybe even different types of rechargeable batteries.
My favorite part of the project was definitely analyzing the research to find successful results.
Coding a simulation is a little difficult at first, but it just takes some practice! And Google is always there to help.
