Doyle Fuller Newman Battery Model

The Doyle Fuller Newman Battery Model, often abbreviated as the Newman mode, is the starting point for a lot of battery electrochemical models.

The galvanostatic charge and discharge of a lithium anode/solid polymer separator/insertion cathode cell is modeled using concentrated solution theory. The model is general enough to include a wide range of polymeric separator materials, lithium salts, and composite insertion cathodes. Insertion of lithium into the active cathode material is simulated using superposition, thus greatly simplifying the numerical calculations. Variable physical properties are permitted in the model.
Marc Doyle, Thomas F. Fuller and John Newman, Modeling of Galvanostatic Charge and Discharge of the Lithium/Polymer/Insertion Cell, 1993 J. Electrochem. Soc. 140 1526

The model requires over 30 parameters to fully describe the physical, chemical, and electrochemical properties of the cell and allow simulation of its behaviour.

Summary of the parameterization requirements and physical, chemical and electrochemical property elucidation. [2]

Applications

Fast Charging of a Lithium-Ion Battery

Using a Newman model to ensure the negative electrode potential <0V

This algorithm enhances the charging current in order to maintain the observed overpotential near the threshold potential while reducing the charging time and protecting the cell’s state-of-health SOH.

Further Developments

Extending the Doyle-Fuller-Newman model for Phase-Separating Materials

The DFN model was extended by the Bazant group at MIT to phase-separating battery materials using phase-field methods, and their model was recently implemented in PyBaMM by researchers at IonWorks. The phase-field method is a thermodynamically rigorous modeling technique for simulating the evolution of complex phase diagrams.