PhD in Advanced Battery Design for Future Electric Vehicles

Significant advances have been made understanding the performance of lithium-ion batteries. However, less consideration has been given to the wider, multidisciplinary engineering challenges associated with battery design and manufacturability that will underpin the successful design of new battery systems for future electric vehicles (EVs) and aircraft. Meeting future EV requirements mandates a fundamental revaluation of how batteries are designed. WMG and Jaguar Land Rover have identified that significant innovation opportunities exist around new battery concepts that improve performance and sustainability.

The aims of this PhD include:

• To create a clear vision for how future EV requirements (e.g., sustainability, performance, safety, cost) can be cascaded to support the optimisation of new battery concepts.
• To devise new methods to improve our understanding of battery expansion, heat dissipation and mechanical loading.
• To design new methods to increase product safety at the battery and vehicle scale.

This PhD will adopt a novel systems-engineering methodology to the challenges of battery design, manufacturability, and through-life sustainability.

As a PhD student you will work within a large multidisciplinary research team comprising academics, researchers and professional engineers. You will have access to the UKs leading laboratories for battery research - the WMG Energy Innovation Centre and the Battery Safety Centre. You will also work closely with the Jaguar Land Rover battery research team who are co-located on campus.

The ideal candidate will have a degree in either electrical or mechanical engineering, with the ability to design and undertake experimental research, including good programming, data processing and visualisation skills using tools such as MATLAB, LabVIEW and dSPACE. Electives in energy storage (e.g., batteries), thermodynamics, simulation and electronics will be an advantage. A general interest in electric vehicles and electric mobility would be beneficial.