Modeling battery systems – problems of nonlinearity, efficiency, aging, coupling, and network setup

We discuss several problems of batteries and fuel cells from the point of view of nonlinear dynamics and review some earlier work on modeling this class of systems as well as new developments. We consider batteries and fuel cells as active nonlinear electrochemical circuits with properties depending on many factors as load, age, load history etc. We show that most satisfactory battery regimes are reached by coupling of an odd number of circuits in opposite phases. Specific points of discussion are types of dynamic regimes and the efficiency of the conversion of chemical into electrical energy in dependence on the work load, the life cycles of batteries, including installation, work under load, aging and decay. Further we discuss specific properties of managing battery networks, in particular the cycle of replacing of old batteries by fresh ones including the optimization of this cycle. The last part of this work is merely a list of open tasks to be elaborated.