Integration of energy storage functionalities into fiber reinforced spacecraft structures

Autor: Benjamin Grzesik, Arno Kwade, Stefan Linke, Guangyue Liao, Linus Froböse, Enrico Stoll, Daniel Vogt
Rok vydání: 2020
Předmět:
Zdroj: Scopus-Elsevier
ISSN: 0094-5765
Popis: One of the common challenges of spaceflight and e-mobility is the energy storage. The operational ranges of spacecraft or electric cars as well as operational usability is strongly dependent on the capacity of the energy storage, which is usually constrained by the mass and volume of the vehicle. For example, the battery mass of large communication satellites ranges from 6% to 9% of the dry mass. This amount increases for smaller satellites like CubeSats up to 13% without accounting wiring harnesses and subsystem volume. Thus, a system can benefit from a reduction in mass and volume by combining multifunctional use of the components and materials. In the presented research, energy storage is integrated into lightweight carbon fiber materials. Carbon fibers have a distinct mass advantage compared to metal structures. In addition, they have very low thermal expansions that can reduce thermal stresses during the operation of a satellite. Fiber composites or laminates consist of two components, the fibers and the matrix material. In laminates, the typically resin based matrix content is 30–40% of the component volume and could be substituted with novel solid state battery materials. Latter have the advantage that they have nearly similar physical properties as usually used resins and are also able to store energy electrochemically. Thus, about 25% of the volume can be used for electrochemical energy storage without compromising structure integrity. To reach such electrochemical functions the host structures have to be infiltrated with anode, cathode, and separator materials. Using the developed recipes and a component thickness of 5 mm, an energy amount per component area of 1130 Wh/m2 can be reached depending on the applied battery active material. This article will give an overview of how fiber composite materials, which are increasingly being used in lightweight construction processes, can be combined with energy storage materials to be used in spacecraft structures. The goal of the research on this topic at the Technische Universtat Braunschweig is a structure battery for a spacecraft. However the article addresses as a first step the characterization and manufacturing of structural battery composite negative half-cells from carbon fiber reinforced PEO/LiTFSI. An estimation of the expected performance is carried out. The initial material evaluation and the manufacturing process as well as mechanical and electrical result will be discussed.
Databáze: OpenAIRE
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