Mathematical Modeling and Symbolic Sensitivity Analysis of Ni-MH Batteries

Because of its widespread use in almost all the current electric and hybrid electric vehicles on the market, nickel metal hydride (Ni-MH) battery performance is very important for automotive researchers and manufacturers. The performance of a battery can be described as a direct consequence of various chemical and physical phenomena taking place inside the container. To help understand these complex phenomena, a mathematical model of a Ni-MH battery will be presented in this paper. A parametric importance analysis is performed on this model to assess the contribution of individual model parameters to the battery performance. In this paper the efficiency of the battery is chosen as the performance measure. Efficiency is defined by the ratio of the energy output from the battery and the energy input to the battery while charging. By evaluating the sensitivity of the efficiency with respect to various model parameters, the order of importance of those parameters is obtained. In this analysis, the efficiency of the battery is found to be most sensitive to the ambient temperature and the surface density of the active nickel hydroxide.