Optimization of the lithium/thionyl chloride battery

The progress which has been made in modeling the lithium/thionyl chloride cell over the past year and proposed research for the coming year are discussed. A one-dimensional mathematical model for a lithium/thionyl chloride cell has been developed and used to investigate methods of improving cell performance. During the course of the work a problem was detected with the banded solver being used. It was replaced with one more reliable. Future work may take one of two directions. The one-dimensional model could be augmented to include additional features and to investigate in more detail the cell temperature behavior, or a simplified two-dimensional model for the spirally wound design of this battery could be developed to investigate the heat flow within the cell.