Abstract One of the common challenges of spaceflight and e-mobility is the energy storage. The operational ranges of spacecraft or electric cars as well as operational usability is strongly dependent on the capacity of the energy storage, which is usually constrained by the mass and volume of the vehicle. For example, the battery mass of large communication satellites ranges from 6% to 9% of the dry mass. This amount increases for smaller satellites like CubeSats up to 13% without accounting wiring harnesses and subsystem volume. Thus, a system can benefit from a reduction in mass and volume by combining multifunctional use of the components and materials. In the presented research, energy storage is integrated into lightweight carbon fiber materials. Carbon fibers have a distinct mass advantage compared to metal structures. In addition, they have very low thermal expansions that can reduce thermal stresses during the operation of a satellite. Fiber composites or laminates consist of two components, the fibers and the matrix material. In laminates, the typically resin based matrix content is 30–40% of the component volume and could be substituted with novel solid state battery materials. Latter have the advantage that they have nearly similar physical properties as usually used resins and are also able to store energy electrochemically. Thus, about 25% of the volume can be used for electrochemical energy storage without compromising structure integrity. To reach such electrochemical functions the host structures have to be infiltrated with anode, cathode, and separator materials. Using the developed recipes and a component thickness of 5 mm, an energy amount per component area of 1130 Wh/m2 can be reached depending on the applied battery active material. This article will give an overview of how fiber composite materials, which are increasingly being used in lightweight construction processes, can be combined with energy storage materials to be used in spacecraft structures. The goal of the research on this topic at the Technische Universtät Braunschweig is a structure battery for a spacecraft. However the article addresses as a first step the characterization and manufacturing of structural battery composite negative half-cells from carbon fiber reinforced PEO/LiTFSI. An estimation of the expected performance is carried out. The initial material evaluation and the manufacturing process as well as mechanical and electrical result will be discussed.
Highlights We integrate energy storage functionality into the spacecraft structure. Carbon fiber can be impregnated with resin blended with Li-Salt (LiTFSI) and PEO. Infiltrated CFRP has excellent mechanical performance in direction of tensile force. LiTFSI in the electrolyte is used to increase ionic conductivity. Best multifunctional properties are acquired with PEO/LiTFSI r = 0.03 (Li+/O-).
Integration of energy storage functionalities into fiber reinforced spacecraft structures
Acta Astronautica ; 166 ; 172-179
2019-10-06
8 pages
Aufsatz (Zeitschrift)
Elektronische Ressource
Englisch
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