Performance analysis of vanadium redox flow battery with interdigitated flow channel

As a key technology of energy storage system, vanadium redox flow battery has been used in the past few years. It is very important to explore the thermal behavior and performance of batteries. This study establishes a three-dimensional model of a vanadium redox flow battery with an interdigitated flow channel design. By adjusting the key parameters of the battery, the temperature and voltage changes of the battery are discussed. The electrochemistry, fluid mechanics, and multi physics phenomenon are involved in the model. Operating temperature, electrolyte flow rate, and current density are investigated as the important parameters. The results show that the electrolyte charge, mass transport, and electrochemical activity change at elevated operating temperature, and the battery discharge voltage increases with increasing the operating temperature. During the charging and discharging processes, the internal temperature of the battery also increases with the increase of the operating temperature, and the temperature distribution of the positive and negative electrodes is uniform, showing that the operating temperature has a slightly less effect on the temperature difference between the positive and negative electrodes. When the electrolyte flow rate is increased, since increasing the flow rate helps to increase the Coulombic efficiency, the discharge voltage of the battery also increases. When the current density is increased, the battery discharge state time is shortened, causing the discharge time to end faster.