Optimization and experimental validation of a thermal cycle that maximizes entropy coefficient fisher identifiability for lithium iron phosphate cells

• Optimized the thermal input to estimate entropy coefficients of a cell at 20% SOC.
• Demonstrated the result for a set of lithium iron phosphate (LFP) cells.
• Compared the results from the optimal experiment with two benchmark experiments.
• Found a thermal time constant representing thermal capacitance and heat transfer.

This article presents a framework for optimizing the thermal cycle to estimate a battery cell's entropy coefficient at 20% state of charge (SOC). Our goal is to maximize Fisher identifiability: a measure of the accuracy with which a parameter can be estimated. Existing protocols in the literature for estimating entropy coefficients demand excessive laboratory time. Identifiability optimization makes it possible to achieve comparable accuracy levels in a fraction of the time. This article demonstrates this result for a set of lithium iron phosphate (LFP) cells. We conduct a 24-h experiment to obtain benchmark measurements of their entropy coefficients. We optimize a thermal cycle to maximize parameter identifiability for these cells. This optimization proceeds with respect to the coefficients of a Fourier discretization of this thermal cycle. Finally, we compare the estimated parameters using (i) the benchmark test, (ii) the optimized protocol, and (iii) a 15-h test from the literature (by Forgez et al.). The results are encouraging for two reasons. First, they confirm the simulation-based prediction that the optimized experiment can produce accurate parameter estimates in 2 h, compared to 15–24. Second, the optimized experiment also estimates a thermal time constant representing the effects of thermal capacitance and convection heat transfer.