Non-isothermal Ragone plots of Li-ion cells from datasheet and galvanostatic discharge tests

Abstract Ragone plot is a conventional tool to compare different energy storage systems in terms of energy and power densities. The selection of the most suitable Li-ion technology for a given application is usually based on the specific energy and power extracted from datasheets at ambient temperatures (25 °C). However, these values are highly temperature-dependent. This study investigates experimentally and via numerical simulations a quantification of the energy and power densities for two different Li-ion chemistry cells in a wide operating temperature range. The experimental results reveal that these values determined from constant current discharge are approximately 15% higher than those determined for a constant power discharge. Therefore, a simple and efficient coupled electrical–thermal model based on an equivalent circuit model (ECM) is proposed, which is able to estimate the voltage, temperature, and available discharged energy of 18,650 Li-ion cells with a good accuracy. Moreover, all parameters in the model can be directly identified with manufacturer’s datasheets at 25 °C. Then, the proposed Ragone plot model can be extended to wider temperature and power ranges. The relative error of the simulated energy density is below 2% for both technologies for all operating conditions from – 20 °C to 55 °C. Thus, a non-isothermal Ragone plot is established by considering the thermal effect for the first time. The proposed method could be employed as a conception aid tool for the selection of Li-ion cells in a system design process.