Characterization of the degradation process of lithium-ion batteries when discharged at different current rates

The use of energy storage devices, such as lithium-ion batteries, has become popular in many different domains and applications. Hence, it is relatively easy to find literature associated with problems of battery state-of-charge estimation and energy autonomy prognostics. Despite this fact, the characterization of battery degradation processes is still a matter of ongoing research. Indeed, most battery degradation models solely consider operation under nominal (or strictly controlled) conditions, although actual operating profiles (including discharge current) may differ significantly from those. In this context, this article proposes a lithium-ion battery degradation model that incorporates the impact of arbitrary discharge currents. Also, the proposed model, initially calibrated through data reported for a specific lithium-ion battery type, can characterize degradation curves for other lithium-ion batteries. Two case studies have been carried out to validate the proposed model, initially calibrated by using data from a Sony battery. The first case study uses our own experimental data obtained for a Panasonic lithium-ion cell, which was cycled and degraded at high current rates. The second case study considers the analysis of two public data sets available at the Prognostics Center of Excellence of NASA Ames Research Center website, for batteries cycled using nominal and 2-C (twice the nominal) discharge currents. Results show that the proposed model can characterize degradation processes properly, even when cycles are subject to different discharge currents and for batteries not manufactured by Sony (whose data were used for the initial calibration).