Prognostics and condition monitoring of lithium ion battery system PhD

This PhD project will focus on developing, evaluating, and demonstrating a novel prognostics and condition monitoring solution for Lithium-Ion battery system which is able to address all main three challenges of prognostics concurrently. A comprehensive test-bed for in-depth studies will be used for experiments for demonstration and evaluation.

Lithium-ion batteries are the primary power source in electric vehicles, and the prognosis of their remaining useful life (RUL) is vital for ensuring the safety, stability, and long lifetime of electric vehicles. Different solutions have been developed to accurately estimate the state of the charge and state of health because they play important roles in safe and reliable usage of lithium-ion batteries. However, these solutions still stays immature to handle simultaneously all main three challenges (robustness, reliability and applicability) of prognostics solution, which are still open areas.

The student will have the opportunity to work with experts in the prognostics and condition monitoring field, as well as being part of our strong and dynamic research centre at Cranfield University.

About the host University/Centre

Cranfield is an exclusively postgraduate university that is a global leader for transformational research and education in technology and management. Research Excellence Framework 2014 (REF) has recognised 81% of Cranfield’s research as world leading or internationally excellent in its quality. Every year Cranfield graduates the highest number of postgraduates in engineering and technology in the UK (Source: Higher Education Statistics Agency Ltd). Cranfield Manufacturing is one of eight major themes at Cranfield University. The manufacturing capability is world leading and combines a multi-disciplinary approach that integrates design, technology and management expertise. We link fundamental materials research with manufacturing to develop novel technologies and improve the science base of manufacturing research.

The Integrated Vehicle Health Management (IVHM) Centre is a major collaborative venture at Cranfield, started in 2008, with funding from the East of England Development Agency (EEDA); a consortium of core industrial partners, (Boeing, BAE Systems, Rolls-Royce, Meggitt, Thales, MOD and Alstom); and from EPSRC. The investment, over the first 5 years of operation, was approaching £10M. We are now in our eighth year of operation and the Centre has grown into other sectors (rail, energy, health and agriculture), and is financially self-sustaining; many of the partners (and others) are funding Applied Research projects and there is a growing revenue from EPSRC, TSB and EU funded work.