Structural design of mobile energy storage vehicle

Structural energy storage devices function as both a structural component and an energy storage device simultaneously. Therefore, a system (e.g. a vehicle) with such multifunctional devices can have better mass efficiency and longer operating time.

This type of batteries is commonly referred to as “structural batteries”. Two general methods have been explored to develop structural batteries: (1) integrating batteries with light and strong external reinforcements, and (2) introducing multifunctional materials as battery components to make energy storage devices themselves structurally robust.

Though not systematically summarized here, those works can be of great benefit to the field of structural energy storage to better understand how a component or a device responds to a certain stimulation such as current or mechanical impact, and thus to better design devices with higher performance and safety.

Carlstedt and Asp developed a performance analysis framework to study the benefits of using structural battery composites in EVs . Their case study manifested that the driving range could be increased by 70% for lightweight vehicles with feasible structural battery designs.

To implement structural batteries in systems such as vehicles, several key points must be satisfied first, including mechanical and electrochemical performance, safety, and costs, as summarized in Fig. 8. In this section, these points will be briefly discussed, covering current challenges and future development directions. Figure 8.

The current structural performance within the multi-functional performance is re- stricted to only one component. This must be done more exhaustively for other structural components within the vehicle. Then only will the total feasibility of usingstructuralbatterycompositebeaccuratelydetermined.