Numerical modeling of non-woven fiber mats: Their effective mechanical and electrical properties

Numerical simulations on non-woven fibrous, porous structures were performed to determine material design space for energy storage device (battery and ultra-capacitor) separators. Material simulations were performed initially with a commercial program called GeoDict using its demo version. Later, in-house computational tools were developed and employed. The numerical routines were created to model mechanical and electrical properties of porous structures. The tools were built as a pre-processor for a commercial finite element package. Effective properties were estimated in the post-processing phase using the current and stress distributions. No multi-physics assumptions were considered to couple electrical and mechanical fields at this stage. The numerical results between two numerical platforms, GeoDict and in-house tools. Regions of interest in porosity for battery separators are discussed.