Project acronym ASICA
Project New constraints on the Amazonian carbon balance from airborne observations of the stable isotopes of CO2
Researcher (PI) Wouter Peters
Host Institution (HI) WAGENINGEN UNIVERSITY
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), PE10, ERC-2014-CoG
Summary Severe droughts in Amazonia in 2005 and 2010 caused widespread loss of carbon from the terrestrial biosphere. This loss, almost twice the annual fossil fuel CO2 emissions in the EU, suggests a large sensitivity of the Amazonian carbon balance to a predicted more intense drought regime in the next decades. This is a dangerous inference though, as there is no scientific consensus on the most basic metrics of Amazonian carbon exchange: the gross primary production (GPP) and its response to moisture deficits in the soil and atmosphere. Measuring them on scales that span the whole Amazon forest was thus far impossible, but in this project I aim to deliver the first observation-based estimate of pan-Amazonian GPP and its drought induced variations.
My program builds on two recent breakthroughs in our use of stable isotopes (13C, 17O, 18O) in atmospheric CO2: (1) Our discovery that observed δ¹³C in CO2 in the atmosphere is a quantitative measure for vegetation water-use efficiency over millions of square kilometers, integrating the drought response of individual plants. (2) The possibility to precisely measure the relative ratios of 18O/16O and 17O/16O in CO2, called Δ17O. Anomalous Δ17O values are present in air coming down from the stratosphere, but this anomaly is removed upon contact of CO2 with leaf water inside plant stomata. Hence, observed Δ17O values depend directly on the magnitude of GPP. Both δ¹³C and Δ17O measurements are scarce over the Amazon-basin, and I propose more than 7000 new measurements leveraging an established aircraft monitoring program in Brazil. Quantitative interpretation of these observations will break new ground in our use of stable isotopes to understand climate variations, and is facilitated by our renowned numerical modeling system “CarbonTracker”. My program will answer two burning question in carbon cycle science today: (a) What is the magnitude of GPP in Amazonia? And (b) How does it vary over different intensities of drought?
Summary
Severe droughts in Amazonia in 2005 and 2010 caused widespread loss of carbon from the terrestrial biosphere. This loss, almost twice the annual fossil fuel CO2 emissions in the EU, suggests a large sensitivity of the Amazonian carbon balance to a predicted more intense drought regime in the next decades. This is a dangerous inference though, as there is no scientific consensus on the most basic metrics of Amazonian carbon exchange: the gross primary production (GPP) and its response to moisture deficits in the soil and atmosphere. Measuring them on scales that span the whole Amazon forest was thus far impossible, but in this project I aim to deliver the first observation-based estimate of pan-Amazonian GPP and its drought induced variations.
My program builds on two recent breakthroughs in our use of stable isotopes (13C, 17O, 18O) in atmospheric CO2: (1) Our discovery that observed δ¹³C in CO2 in the atmosphere is a quantitative measure for vegetation water-use efficiency over millions of square kilometers, integrating the drought response of individual plants. (2) The possibility to precisely measure the relative ratios of 18O/16O and 17O/16O in CO2, called Δ17O. Anomalous Δ17O values are present in air coming down from the stratosphere, but this anomaly is removed upon contact of CO2 with leaf water inside plant stomata. Hence, observed Δ17O values depend directly on the magnitude of GPP. Both δ¹³C and Δ17O measurements are scarce over the Amazon-basin, and I propose more than 7000 new measurements leveraging an established aircraft monitoring program in Brazil. Quantitative interpretation of these observations will break new ground in our use of stable isotopes to understand climate variations, and is facilitated by our renowned numerical modeling system “CarbonTracker”. My program will answer two burning question in carbon cycle science today: (a) What is the magnitude of GPP in Amazonia? And (b) How does it vary over different intensities of drought?
Max ERC Funding
2 269 689 €
Duration
Start date: 2015-09-01, End date: 2020-08-31
Project acronym COAT
Project Collapse Of Atmospheric Turbulence
Researcher (PI) Bas Johannes Henricus Van de wiel
Host Institution (HI) TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITEIT DELFT
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), PE10, ERC-2014-CoG
Summary This project aims to predict the cessation of continuous turbulence in the evening boundary layer. The interaction between the lower atmosphere and the surface is studied in detail, as this plays a crucial role in the dynamics. Present generation forecasting models are incapable to predict whether or not turbulence will survive or collapse under cold conditions. In nature, both situations frequently occur and lead to completely different temperature signatures. As such, significant forecast errors are made, particularly in arctic regions and winter conditions. Therefore, prediction of turbulence collapse is highly relevant for weather and climate prediction.
Key innovation lies in our hypothesis. The collapse of turbulence is explained from a maximum sustainable heat flux hypothesis which foresees in an enforcing positive feedback between the atmosphere and the underlying surface. A comprehensive theory for the transition between the main two nocturnal regimes would be ground-breaking in meteorological literature.
We propose an integrated approach, which combines in-depth theoretical work, simulation with models of various hierarchy (DNS, LES, RANS), and observational analysis. Such comprehensive methodology is new with respect to the problem at hand. An innovative element is the usage of Direct Numerical Simulation in combination with dynamical surface interactions. This advanced technique fully resolves turbulent motions up to their smallest scale without the need to rely on subgrid closure assumptions. From a 10-year dataset (200m mast at Cabauw, Netherlands) nights are classified according to their turbulence characteristics. Multi-night composites are used as benchmark-cases to guide realistic numerical modelling. In the validation phase, generality of the results with respect to both climate and surface characteristics is assessed by comparison with the FLUXNET data-consortium, which operates on a long-term basis over 240 sites across the globe.
Summary
This project aims to predict the cessation of continuous turbulence in the evening boundary layer. The interaction between the lower atmosphere and the surface is studied in detail, as this plays a crucial role in the dynamics. Present generation forecasting models are incapable to predict whether or not turbulence will survive or collapse under cold conditions. In nature, both situations frequently occur and lead to completely different temperature signatures. As such, significant forecast errors are made, particularly in arctic regions and winter conditions. Therefore, prediction of turbulence collapse is highly relevant for weather and climate prediction.
Key innovation lies in our hypothesis. The collapse of turbulence is explained from a maximum sustainable heat flux hypothesis which foresees in an enforcing positive feedback between the atmosphere and the underlying surface. A comprehensive theory for the transition between the main two nocturnal regimes would be ground-breaking in meteorological literature.
We propose an integrated approach, which combines in-depth theoretical work, simulation with models of various hierarchy (DNS, LES, RANS), and observational analysis. Such comprehensive methodology is new with respect to the problem at hand. An innovative element is the usage of Direct Numerical Simulation in combination with dynamical surface interactions. This advanced technique fully resolves turbulent motions up to their smallest scale without the need to rely on subgrid closure assumptions. From a 10-year dataset (200m mast at Cabauw, Netherlands) nights are classified according to their turbulence characteristics. Multi-night composites are used as benchmark-cases to guide realistic numerical modelling. In the validation phase, generality of the results with respect to both climate and surface characteristics is assessed by comparison with the FLUXNET data-consortium, which operates on a long-term basis over 240 sites across the globe.
Max ERC Funding
1 659 580 €
Duration
Start date: 2016-01-01, End date: 2020-12-31
Project acronym DEPRIVEDHOODS
Project Socio-spatial inequality, deprived neighbourhoods, and neighbourhood effects
Researcher (PI) Maarten Van Ham
Host Institution (HI) TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITEIT DELFT
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), SH3, ERC-2013-CoG
Summary The objective of DEPRIVEDHOODS is to come to a better understanding of the relationship between socio-economic inequality, poverty and neighbourhoods. The spatial concentration of poverty within cities is of great concern to national governments, partly based on a belief in neighbourhood effects: the idea that living in deprived neighbourhoods has an additional negative effect on residents’ life chances over and above the effect of their own characteristics. This belief has contributed to the development of area-based policies designed to introduce a more ‘favourable’ socio-economic mix in deprived neighbourhoods. Despite the persistent belief in neighbourhood effects, there is surprisingly little evidence that living in deprived neighbourhoods really affects individual lives. There is little consensus on the importance of neighbourhood effects, the underlying causal mechanisms, the conditions under which they are important and the most effective policy responses. It is likely that most studies claiming to have found that poor neighbourhoods make people poor(er) only show that poor people live in poor neighbourhoods because they cannot afford to live elsewhere. DEPRIVEDHOODS will break new ground by simultaneously studying neighbourhood sorting over the life course, neighbourhood change, and neighbourhood effects, within one theoretical and analytical framework. This project will be methodologically challenging and will be the first integrated, multi-country research project on neighbourhood effects to use unique geo-referenced longitudinal data from Sweden, United Kingdom, Estonia, and The Netherlands. Special attention will be paid to the operationalization of neighbourhoods and how it affects modelling outcomes. Through its integrated and international approach, DEPRIVEDHOODS will fundamentally advance understandings of the ways in which individual outcomes interact with the neighbourhood, which will ultimately lead to more targeted and effective policy measures.
Summary
The objective of DEPRIVEDHOODS is to come to a better understanding of the relationship between socio-economic inequality, poverty and neighbourhoods. The spatial concentration of poverty within cities is of great concern to national governments, partly based on a belief in neighbourhood effects: the idea that living in deprived neighbourhoods has an additional negative effect on residents’ life chances over and above the effect of their own characteristics. This belief has contributed to the development of area-based policies designed to introduce a more ‘favourable’ socio-economic mix in deprived neighbourhoods. Despite the persistent belief in neighbourhood effects, there is surprisingly little evidence that living in deprived neighbourhoods really affects individual lives. There is little consensus on the importance of neighbourhood effects, the underlying causal mechanisms, the conditions under which they are important and the most effective policy responses. It is likely that most studies claiming to have found that poor neighbourhoods make people poor(er) only show that poor people live in poor neighbourhoods because they cannot afford to live elsewhere. DEPRIVEDHOODS will break new ground by simultaneously studying neighbourhood sorting over the life course, neighbourhood change, and neighbourhood effects, within one theoretical and analytical framework. This project will be methodologically challenging and will be the first integrated, multi-country research project on neighbourhood effects to use unique geo-referenced longitudinal data from Sweden, United Kingdom, Estonia, and The Netherlands. Special attention will be paid to the operationalization of neighbourhoods and how it affects modelling outcomes. Through its integrated and international approach, DEPRIVEDHOODS will fundamentally advance understandings of the ways in which individual outcomes interact with the neighbourhood, which will ultimately lead to more targeted and effective policy measures.
Max ERC Funding
1 996 506 €
Duration
Start date: 2014-08-01, End date: 2019-07-31
Project acronym ESTUARIES
Project Estuaries shaped by biomorphodynamics, inherited landscape conditions and human interference
Researcher (PI) Maarten Gabriel Kleinhans
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITEIT UTRECHT
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), PE10, ERC-2014-CoG
Summary ESTUARIES are shallow coastal water bodies with river inflow shaped by biomorphological processes, with patterns of channels and shoals, sand/mud flats, tidal marshes, vegetated banks and peat. Development was influenced by early Holocene landscape that drowned under sealevel rise, and by human interference.
Estuaries harbour highly productive natural habitats and are of pivotal economic importance for food production, access to harbours and urban safety. Accelerating sealevel rise, changing river discharge and interference threaten these functions, but we lack fundamental understanding and models to predict combined effects of biomorphological interactions, inherited landscape and changing drivers.
We do not understand to what extent present estuary planform shape and shoal patterns resulted from biomorphological processes interacting with inherited conditions and interference. Ecology suggests dominant effects of flow-resisting and sediment de/stabilising eco-engineering species. Yet abiotic physics-based models reproduce channel-shoal patterns surprisingly well, but must assume a fixed planform estuary shape. Holocene reconstructions emphasise inherited landscape- and agricultural effects on this planform shape, yet fossil shells and peat also imply eco-engineering effects.
My aims are to develop models for large-scale planform shape and size of sandy estuaries and predict past and future, large-scale effects of biomorphological interactions and inherited conditions.
We will significantly advance our understanding by our state-of-the-art eco-morphological model, my unique analogue landscape models with eco-engineers and a new, automated paleogeographic reconstruction of 10 data-rich Holocene estuaries on the south-east North Sea coast. We will systematically compare these to modelled scenarios with biomorphological processes, historic interference and inherited valley geometry and substrate. Outcomes will benefit ecology, archeology, oceanography and engineering
Summary
ESTUARIES are shallow coastal water bodies with river inflow shaped by biomorphological processes, with patterns of channels and shoals, sand/mud flats, tidal marshes, vegetated banks and peat. Development was influenced by early Holocene landscape that drowned under sealevel rise, and by human interference.
Estuaries harbour highly productive natural habitats and are of pivotal economic importance for food production, access to harbours and urban safety. Accelerating sealevel rise, changing river discharge and interference threaten these functions, but we lack fundamental understanding and models to predict combined effects of biomorphological interactions, inherited landscape and changing drivers.
We do not understand to what extent present estuary planform shape and shoal patterns resulted from biomorphological processes interacting with inherited conditions and interference. Ecology suggests dominant effects of flow-resisting and sediment de/stabilising eco-engineering species. Yet abiotic physics-based models reproduce channel-shoal patterns surprisingly well, but must assume a fixed planform estuary shape. Holocene reconstructions emphasise inherited landscape- and agricultural effects on this planform shape, yet fossil shells and peat also imply eco-engineering effects.
My aims are to develop models for large-scale planform shape and size of sandy estuaries and predict past and future, large-scale effects of biomorphological interactions and inherited conditions.
We will significantly advance our understanding by our state-of-the-art eco-morphological model, my unique analogue landscape models with eco-engineers and a new, automated paleogeographic reconstruction of 10 data-rich Holocene estuaries on the south-east North Sea coast. We will systematically compare these to modelled scenarios with biomorphological processes, historic interference and inherited valley geometry and substrate. Outcomes will benefit ecology, archeology, oceanography and engineering
Max ERC Funding
2 000 000 €
Duration
Start date: 2015-12-01, End date: 2020-11-30
Project acronym MADE
Project Migration as Development
Researcher (PI) Hein Gysbert de Haas
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITEIT VAN AMSTERDAM
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), SH3, ERC-2014-CoG
Summary How do processes of development and social transformation shape human migration? More specifically, how do development process affect the geographical orientation, timing, composition and volume of both internal and international migration? The relation between development and human mobility is highly contested. While economic development in poor countries and areas is usually seen as the most effective way to reduce migration, other studies suggest that development actually increases migration. However, evidence has remained highly inconclusive so far because of theoretical and methodological limitations.
This research develops new theoretical and empirical approaches to gain a fundamental understanding of the relation between development processes and human migration. While prior analyses focused on a limited number of economic and demographic ‘predictor’ variables, this project applies a broader concept of development to examine how internal and international migration trends and patterns are shaped by wider social, economic, technological and political transformations.
This will be achieved through (i) theory-building (reconceptualising migration as an intrinsic part of broader development processes) enabling the formulation of appropriate hypotheses; (ii) quantitative tests drawing on new, innovative databases on international and internal migration flow and stocks; and (iii) mixed method case-studies of six countries (provisionally Brazil, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Italy, Morocco and the Netherlands) representing different development-migration trajectories over the 19th and 20th centuries.
This project is scientifically ground-breaking by fundamentally shifting our understanding of how long-term development and social transformation processes shape human migration. This is also relevant for policy by challenging popular understandings of migration as a development failure and to make more realistic assessments of how future global change may affect migration.
Summary
How do processes of development and social transformation shape human migration? More specifically, how do development process affect the geographical orientation, timing, composition and volume of both internal and international migration? The relation between development and human mobility is highly contested. While economic development in poor countries and areas is usually seen as the most effective way to reduce migration, other studies suggest that development actually increases migration. However, evidence has remained highly inconclusive so far because of theoretical and methodological limitations.
This research develops new theoretical and empirical approaches to gain a fundamental understanding of the relation between development processes and human migration. While prior analyses focused on a limited number of economic and demographic ‘predictor’ variables, this project applies a broader concept of development to examine how internal and international migration trends and patterns are shaped by wider social, economic, technological and political transformations.
This will be achieved through (i) theory-building (reconceptualising migration as an intrinsic part of broader development processes) enabling the formulation of appropriate hypotheses; (ii) quantitative tests drawing on new, innovative databases on international and internal migration flow and stocks; and (iii) mixed method case-studies of six countries (provisionally Brazil, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Italy, Morocco and the Netherlands) representing different development-migration trajectories over the 19th and 20th centuries.
This project is scientifically ground-breaking by fundamentally shifting our understanding of how long-term development and social transformation processes shape human migration. This is also relevant for policy by challenging popular understandings of migration as a development failure and to make more realistic assessments of how future global change may affect migration.
Max ERC Funding
1 748 656 €
Duration
Start date: 2015-09-01, End date: 2020-08-31
Project acronym NONSPHEREFLOW
Project Multiscale modelling of gas-fluidized flows of non-spherical particles
Researcher (PI) Johannes Tiemen Padding
Host Institution (HI) TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITEIT DELFT
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), PE8, ERC-2013-CoG
Summary Many important products are made using fluidized bed reactors, where solid particles are suspended by a gas flow. This promotes highly efficient gas-particle contact, resulting in high heat transfer, high chemical reaction rates and high product yields. Multiscale modelling has proven to be indispensable in the design and optimisation of fluidized bed reactors. Most coarse-grained models assume that the solid particles are of spherical shape because this simplifies the treatment of gas-solid drag and particle collisions. However, many particles used in fluidized bed (bio)reactors are non-spherical. This means that anisotropic collisions, anisotropic gas-solid drag, effects of local particle alignment, and alignment by nearby internal and external walls all need to be taken into account.
I propose to pioneer a multiscale simulation methodology, backed up by validating in-house experiments, for prediction of structure formation in gas-solid flows of inelastic non-spherical particles. As a first step we focus on elongated particles. The multiscale approach consists of: 1) fully resolved simulations to obtain closures for translational and rotational gas drag tensors in crowded environments and near external and internal walls, 2) Discrete Particle Model simulations to validate the drag closures with matching experiments and to obtain statistics of angular and linear velocity changes due to inter-particle collisions between groups of particles, 3) a novel Lagrangian method based on stochastic multi-particle collisions. The collision propagation rules make maximum use of conservation laws and local symmetries of the particle configuration, orientation and deformation rates. The coarse-grained model is amenable to a parcel approach and can be coupled with heat and mass transfer models, allowing for simulation of industrial scale reactors with non-spherical particles.
Summary
Many important products are made using fluidized bed reactors, where solid particles are suspended by a gas flow. This promotes highly efficient gas-particle contact, resulting in high heat transfer, high chemical reaction rates and high product yields. Multiscale modelling has proven to be indispensable in the design and optimisation of fluidized bed reactors. Most coarse-grained models assume that the solid particles are of spherical shape because this simplifies the treatment of gas-solid drag and particle collisions. However, many particles used in fluidized bed (bio)reactors are non-spherical. This means that anisotropic collisions, anisotropic gas-solid drag, effects of local particle alignment, and alignment by nearby internal and external walls all need to be taken into account.
I propose to pioneer a multiscale simulation methodology, backed up by validating in-house experiments, for prediction of structure formation in gas-solid flows of inelastic non-spherical particles. As a first step we focus on elongated particles. The multiscale approach consists of: 1) fully resolved simulations to obtain closures for translational and rotational gas drag tensors in crowded environments and near external and internal walls, 2) Discrete Particle Model simulations to validate the drag closures with matching experiments and to obtain statistics of angular and linear velocity changes due to inter-particle collisions between groups of particles, 3) a novel Lagrangian method based on stochastic multi-particle collisions. The collision propagation rules make maximum use of conservation laws and local symmetries of the particle configuration, orientation and deformation rates. The coarse-grained model is amenable to a parcel approach and can be coupled with heat and mass transfer models, allowing for simulation of industrial scale reactors with non-spherical particles.
Max ERC Funding
1 983 012 €
Duration
Start date: 2014-05-01, End date: 2019-04-30
Project acronym SIZE
Project Size matters: scaling principles for the prediction of the ecological footprint of biofuels
Researcher (PI) Mark Antonius Jan Huijbregts
Host Institution (HI) STICHTING KATHOLIEKE UNIVERSITEIT
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), SH3, ERC-2014-CoG
Summary There is a major scientific and societal challenge in quantifying and reducing ecological footprints of products. Ecological footprint calculations suffer severely from a limited availability of data, such as the amount of energy and materials associated with the production, use and disposal of products. Furthermore, ecological footprints pertaining to biodiversity are typically biased towards a limited number of well-known species with a focus on relative species richness, leaving out ecosystem service attributes of biodiversity. As it is virtually impossible to collect all the empirical data required for all species, there is an urgent need to develop an operational framework to derive representative ecological footprints with limited data requirements. I propose to develop a novel framework based on a set of unifying scaling principles related to the production size of products and the body size of species. These scaling principles will be developed to predict key characteristics of biofuel production, such as energy return of investment, agricultural land requirements and greenhouse gas emissions, as well as global impact indicators, such as species extinction risks. The focus of the research is on (1) liquid biofuel production (bioethanol and biodiesel) from various first and second generation feedstock as an important but controversial renewable energy source (2) vascular plant diversity, as the common basis of all terrestrial ecosystems, and (3) habitat destruction and climate change, as important drivers of global change. Together with the PI, two PhD students, two Postdocs and a technical assistant will work on different components of the new predictive models, substantially enhancing the scientific understanding of how to provide reliable ecological footprints in practice.
Summary
There is a major scientific and societal challenge in quantifying and reducing ecological footprints of products. Ecological footprint calculations suffer severely from a limited availability of data, such as the amount of energy and materials associated with the production, use and disposal of products. Furthermore, ecological footprints pertaining to biodiversity are typically biased towards a limited number of well-known species with a focus on relative species richness, leaving out ecosystem service attributes of biodiversity. As it is virtually impossible to collect all the empirical data required for all species, there is an urgent need to develop an operational framework to derive representative ecological footprints with limited data requirements. I propose to develop a novel framework based on a set of unifying scaling principles related to the production size of products and the body size of species. These scaling principles will be developed to predict key characteristics of biofuel production, such as energy return of investment, agricultural land requirements and greenhouse gas emissions, as well as global impact indicators, such as species extinction risks. The focus of the research is on (1) liquid biofuel production (bioethanol and biodiesel) from various first and second generation feedstock as an important but controversial renewable energy source (2) vascular plant diversity, as the common basis of all terrestrial ecosystems, and (3) habitat destruction and climate change, as important drivers of global change. Together with the PI, two PhD students, two Postdocs and a technical assistant will work on different components of the new predictive models, substantially enhancing the scientific understanding of how to provide reliable ecological footprints in practice.
Max ERC Funding
1 670 406 €
Duration
Start date: 2015-09-01, End date: 2020-08-31
Project acronym STRUBA
Project Computational modelling of structural batteries
Researcher (PI) Angelo Simone
Host Institution (HI) TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITEIT DELFT
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), PE8, ERC-2013-CoG
Summary Competition in consumer electronics has pushed the boundaries of technological development towards miniaturization, with weight/size limitations and increasing power demands being the two most stringent requirements. Although almost all the components of any portable device become smaller, lighter and more powerful by the months, electrochemical technology is far from presenting us with the ideal battery. From a different perspective, the equation mobile device = casing + electronics + battery could be simplified by merging the structural function of the casing with that of the energy source of the battery into a structural battery. This approach would immediately reduce weight and size of our mobile devices.
This project aims at investigating the effect of electrochemical-mechanical interactions on the mechanical performance of structural batteries. Understanding and controlling mechanical degradation in structural batteries is of prime importance given the dual structural-electrical function of these devices. In fact, the main concern when dealing with structural batteries is whether the internal stresses caused by external loads will influence the performance of the battery, and, conversely, whether the functioning of the battery will have a detrimental effect on its mechanical properties. The complexity of these processes can only be addressed with dedicated computational techniques. This project offers a unique opportunity for the design and implementation of the first multiphysics and multiscale computational framework for the analysis of structural batteries. Macroscale processes originating at the level of a basic components will be elucidated through physically-based constitutive laws.
The overall impact of this project will be felt across many research communities. Apart from the energy storage community, the developed tools and procedures will influence research and development related to many fibre-reinforced composites.
Summary
Competition in consumer electronics has pushed the boundaries of technological development towards miniaturization, with weight/size limitations and increasing power demands being the two most stringent requirements. Although almost all the components of any portable device become smaller, lighter and more powerful by the months, electrochemical technology is far from presenting us with the ideal battery. From a different perspective, the equation mobile device = casing + electronics + battery could be simplified by merging the structural function of the casing with that of the energy source of the battery into a structural battery. This approach would immediately reduce weight and size of our mobile devices.
This project aims at investigating the effect of electrochemical-mechanical interactions on the mechanical performance of structural batteries. Understanding and controlling mechanical degradation in structural batteries is of prime importance given the dual structural-electrical function of these devices. In fact, the main concern when dealing with structural batteries is whether the internal stresses caused by external loads will influence the performance of the battery, and, conversely, whether the functioning of the battery will have a detrimental effect on its mechanical properties. The complexity of these processes can only be addressed with dedicated computational techniques. This project offers a unique opportunity for the design and implementation of the first multiphysics and multiscale computational framework for the analysis of structural batteries. Macroscale processes originating at the level of a basic components will be elucidated through physically-based constitutive laws.
The overall impact of this project will be felt across many research communities. Apart from the energy storage community, the developed tools and procedures will influence research and development related to many fibre-reinforced composites.
Max ERC Funding
1 968 053 €
Duration
Start date: 2014-06-01, End date: 2019-05-31
