Date: Jan 01, 2012 Source: ARMY SBIR Success Story (
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Today's advanced gun-fired munitions require power sources with increased power and energy densities, but are contained in smaller packages. Munitions power sources typically must operate over a wide temperature range (generally -45to 145°F), withstand prolonged storage (10-20 years), and survive the harsh environment of a ballistic launch. Munition power sources are designed to be inert prior to deployment, which promotes long shelf life and enhances safety and reliability of the system. A limited ability exists among battery vendors to perform design through Modeling and Simulation (M&S). Comprehensive thermo-chemistry modeling is necessary to balance performance with heat management. It is the "heat balance" which controls the internal response rate of the active materials, and allows performance to be elevated for the broad operational temperature range for weapons.
While thermal batteries offer designers several key advantages, the design and integration of this technology into new applications suffers from two significant impediments; the lack of suitable design tools, and the time and large expense necessary to qualify a new battery design through testing. Both of these factors cause significant lead-time and cost impacts.
Erigo Technologies completed a comprehensive computer model for thermal batteries and developed the required input property data. A prototype of this code was developed that provides capabilities that are available in no other modeling package. This prototype was subsequently generalized so that it can handle most battery chemistries without rewriting the code.
Through this successful SBIR project, Erigo Technologies developed the technology to provide detailed mechanical, chemical and thermal simulation of thermal batteries. Using these simulations, thermal batteries can be designed to be longer lasting, more effective, and smaller by innovative thermal management techniques and electrochemical designs.
Technology Transition:
Erigo Technologies has tested the overall approach for the structural modeling by performing a shaker table test at the battery manufacturer, Eagle-Picher, on a battery selected specifically to enable clear observation of internal vibratory modes of the pellet stack. Integrated thermal and electrochemical analyses of a number of existing and proposed thermal battery designs have also been conducted by Erigo and EP.They have received a $1.5M Phase III contract from the Joint Munitions and Lethality Life Cycle Management Command and $375K in commercial investments and sales.
