Multi-field coupled model for liquid metal battery: Comparative analysis of various flow mechanisms and their effects on mass transfer and electrochemical performance

Abstract

The operation of a liquid metal battery involves multiple physical fields, such as electrochemical reaction, mass transfer, heat transfer, fluid flow, magnetic field, etc. It is of great significance to closely couple these physical phenomena. Flow is an important phenomenon in liquid metal batteries, and its generation mechanism is also diverse. Flow can be triggered by temperature fields, electromagnetic fields, or concentration fields. In this work, we firstly established a multi-field coupled model for Li‖Bi liquid metal battery. Through this model, we compared and analyzed the various flow types in the molten salt and the positive electrode, and further discussed the effects of flow on mass transfer and electrochemical performance.

Keywords

• Liquid metal battery
• Thermal convection
• Electro-vortex flow
• Solutal convection
• Multi-field coupling