BIRLA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND SCIENCE PILANI, HYDERABAD CAMPUS

Course: Energy Storage Systems (ECE/EEE/INSTR F428)

Mid-Semester Examination (Session: 2023-24)
Total Marks: 60 Time duration: 90 Minutes

Questions with solutions

1. (6+6+8) = 20M
a. With neat levelling of all the components draw the Liquid-Immersion based cooling
system for Li-ion battery pack and describe its working principle. (4+2) = 6M
Sol. Hint.
Description should be written based on the concept discussed in class

b. Describe the 6-stage charging of Li-ion battery with suitable charging profile diagram
and sequence of operations in tabular form. (3+3) = 6M

Sol. Hint. 6-stages of Li-ion battery charging, discussed and shown in the class.
 c. With a neat diagram and levelling describe the comprehensive thermal management
scheme for a Non-flow high-energy density battery pack considering its;
i) Power Electronic interfacing zone, ii) Battery system zone, iii) Ventilation zone
(6+2) = 8M
Sol. Hint.
Description should be written based on the concept discussed in class

2. (5+3+12) = 20M
a. Draw the comprehensive electrical equivalent circuit of a redox flow battery with ‘n’
no. of series cells. From the equivalent circuit, write the expression for battery stack
open circuit voltage and terminal voltage. (3+2) = 5M

Sol. Hint.
b. Derive the Polar plot for the impedance from the R-C equivalent circuit parameters of
an electrochemical cell under the variation of supply frequency. Consider sinusoidal
signal as test input. Show the impedance parameters properly in the diagram. 3M
Sol. Hint.

Derivation of Polar Plot (frequency analysis) framework for the impedance spectrum
to be shown in the answer as discussed on board during the class

c. Consider, a redox flow battery (RFB) stack undergoes electrolyte flow pressure drop in
its flow pipes. It has the following parameter specifications;
Charging and discharging current = 40 unit
Terminal voltage per cell = 1.6V
Effective length of the pipe line = 2.5 unit
Hydraulic diameter of the pipe = 0.2 unit
Height difference of the pipe-line = 0.3 unit
Density of electrolyte = 0.6 unit
Average Electrolyte flow rate = 12 unit
Pump efficiency = 60%
Velocity difference of the electrolyte inside the pipe = 0.05 unit
Loss coefficient (reservoir to pipe) = 0.08 unit
Friction factor = 0.03
Pressure drop in stack = -1.2 unit
Acceleration due to gravity = 9.81 unit
No. of series cells in stack = 20
Stack internal resistance = 0.075 unit
Charging and discharging time = 1 unit each
Calculate, i) Total pressure drop in the pipes of the RFB storage system, ii) Pump
hydraulic power consumption, iii) Pump electrical power consumption, iv) Overall
battery system efficiency. (4+2+2+4) = 12M

Sol. Hint.

Set of equations needed for solving the problem,

∆
∆𝑝 = −𝜌𝑔 + ∆𝑧 + ℎ + ℎ ……………… (i)

∆ ∆
ℎ =𝐾 , ℎ =𝑓

𝑃 = 𝑄 ∆𝑝 + ∆𝑝 ……………………… (ii)
 𝑃 _ = ……………………………. (iii)

∫ ( ) ∫ _ _
𝑉𝑅𝐹𝐵 𝑠𝑦𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑚 𝑒𝑓𝑓𝑖𝑐𝑖𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑦 (𝜂) = =
∫ ( ) ∫ _ _
------------------------ (iv)

**The significance of the equations was discussed in the class.

Putting the values in the above equations and then substituting the values in the above
equations,
∆𝑝 = -1.76 unit (-ve sign symbolizes the pressure drop)
𝑃 = 35.52 unit ------- (i) (Take the magnitude of pipe and stack pressure drops)
𝑃 _ = 59.2 unit ------ (ii)
𝑉𝑅𝐹𝐵 𝑠𝑦𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑚 𝑒𝑓𝑓𝑖𝑐𝑖𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑦 (𝜂) = 75.45% ------ (iii)

3. (6+10+4) = 20M
a. With a neat diagram, explain the comprehensive electro-thermal management scheme
for Redox Flow Batteries (RFBs). (4+2) = 6M

Sol. Hint
Explanation should be written based on the concept discussed in class

b. A 2kW 10kWh Redox Flow Battery (RFB) storage system operating at an ambient
temperature of 30°C. The charging and discharging currents are 50A and 60A
respectively. The average equivalent stack internal resistance while charging and
discharging are 0.15Ω and 0.2Ω respectively. The temperature of the positive and
negative electrolyte in the two tanks is 35°C. The electrolyte density is 2.5 g.m-3. The
dimensions of the VRFB stack is (L×W×H) 42×25×30 cm3. Specific heat of the
electrolyte is 0.05 J kg-1K-1. Battery Potential is 24V and the potential Gradient is 0.7
V/K. The outlet flow rate for both positive and negative electrolyte in the tanks is 500
ml/sec. For a steady-state stack temperature of 32°C, calculate the ‘rate of change of
VRFB stack temperature’ during charging and discharging? 10M

Sol Hint.
For charging;
𝐝𝐓𝐬 𝐝𝐄
𝐂𝐏 𝛒𝐕𝐬 𝐝𝐭
= 𝐐 𝐂𝐏 𝛒(𝐓 − 𝐓𝐒 ) + 𝐐 𝐂𝐏 𝛒(𝐓 − 𝐓𝐒 ) + 𝐈𝐂𝟐 𝐑 𝐂 + 𝐈𝐂 𝐓𝐒 𝐝𝐓
Putting the values and converting units suitably,
𝐝𝐓𝐬
𝐝𝐭
= 2.8 × 109 K/sec
 For discharging;
𝐝𝐓𝐬 𝐝𝐄
𝐂𝐏 𝛒𝐕𝐬 𝐝𝐭
= 𝐐 𝐂𝐏 𝛒(𝐓 − 𝐓𝐒 ) + 𝐐 𝐂𝐏 𝛒(𝐓 − 𝐓𝐒 ) + 𝐈𝐃𝟐 𝐑 𝐃 + 𝐈𝐝 𝐓𝐒 𝐝𝐓
Putting the values and converting units suitably,
𝐝𝐓𝐬
𝐝𝐭
= 3.44 × 109 K/sec

c. Calculate the overall system energy loss (kWh) of an RFB storage considering the
following parameters;
Stack terminal current = 40A
Relation between the Stack internal resistance and Electrolyte Flow rate =>
Rint = Q-1.6 + 0.04Q + 0.06
The profile of electrolyte flow rate (Q) to be maintained and corresponding pump power
losses are given as follows;

Electrolyte flow rate Pump Power (W)

(L/min)
55 55
50 50
10 10
8 8 40
6

1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5

4M
Sol.
Instance 1: Energy Loss (kWh) = [40 + (402 *0.35)]*1 = 600 Wh = 0.6 kWh
Instance 2: Energy Loss (kWh) = [50 + (402 *0.416)]*1 = 715.6 Wh = 0.716 kWh
Instance 3: Energy Loss (kWh) = [55 + (402 *0.485)]*1 = 831 Wh = 0.831 kWh
Instance 4: Energy Loss (kWh) = [55 + (402 *0.485)]*1 = 831 Wh = 0.831 kWh
Instance 5: Energy Loss (kWh) = [60 + (402 *0.559)]*1 = 954.4 Wh = 0.9544 kWh
Total energy loss of the RFB system = 3.9324 kWh