PNNL

Abstract

Electrochemical models at different scales and varying levels of complexity have been used in the literature to study the evolution of the anode surface in lithium metal batteries. This includes continuum, mesoscale (phase-field approaches) and multiscale models. Thermodynamics based equations have been used to study phase changes in lithium batteries using phase-field approaches.1 However, grid convergence studies and the effect of additional parameters needed to simulate these models are not well documented in the literature. In this paper, using a motivating example of a moving boundary model in one-dimension and two-dimensions, we show how one can formulate phase-field models, implement algorithms for the same and analyze the results. An open-access code with no restrictions is provided as well. The article concludes with some thoughts on advantages and limitations of phase-field models for simulating dendritic growth.