用于垂直起降的飞行电动车辆的电池

Researchers at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory are taking cleaner transportation to the skies by creating and evaluating new batteries for airborne electric vehicles that take off and land vertically.
美国能源部橡树岭国家实验室的研究人员正在为可垂直起降的飞行电动车研发和评估新型电池，以此推动更清洁的空中交通发展。

These aircraft, commonly called eVTOLs, range from delivery drones to urban air taxis. They are designed to rise into the air like a helicopter and fly using wing-borne lift like an airplane. Compared with helicopters, eVTOLs generally use more rotors spinning at a lower speed, making them both safer and quieter.
这些飞行器通常被称为eVTOL，涵盖从送货无人机到城市空中出租车等多种类型。其设计可像直升机般垂直升空，又能如固定翼飞机依靠机翼升力飞行。与直升机相比，eVTOL通常采用更多低速旋转的旋翼，兼具更高安全性和更低噪音特性。

The airborne EV's aren't just flying cars, and ORNL researchers conclude that eVTOL batteries can't just be adapted from electric car batteries. So far that has been the dominant approach to the technology, which is mostly in the modeling stage. ORNL researchers took a different tack by evaluating how lithium-ion batteries fare under extremely high power draw.
空中的电动汽车不仅仅是飞行汽车，ORNL研究人员得出结论，电动垂直起降（eVTOL）电池不能简单地改造自电动汽车电池。迄今为止，这仍是该技术的主要研究方向，目前大多处于建模阶段。ORNL研究人员另辟蹊径，通过评估锂离子电池在极高功率输出下的表现来推进研究。

"The eVTOL program presents a unique opportunity for creating a brand new type of battery with very different requirements and capabilities than what we have seen before," said Ilias Belharouak, an ORNL Corporate Fellow who guides the research.
"eVTOL项目为创造一种全新类型的电池提供了独特机遇，其性能要求和能力与我们此前所见截然不同，"指导该研究的ORNL企业研究员伊利亚斯·贝尔哈鲁瓦克表示。

Researchers are developing new energy-dense materials, learning how these materials degrade under extreme conditions, and developing battery control systems. "This requires us to answer questions about the interplay of battery safety, cycle life and stability at high temperatures, while balancing the need for short bursts of high power with energy reserves for longer-range flight," Belharouak said.
研究人员正在开发新型高能量密度材料，研究这些材料在极端条件下的退化机制，并研发电池控制系统。"这要求我们回答关于电池安全性、高温循环寿命与稳定性相互作用的问题，同时平衡短时高功率爆发与长航时飞行所需能量储备之间的矛盾，"Belharouak表示。

The first major takeaway from an extensive eVTOL research project underway at ORNL is that the power and performance demands for eVTOL batteries can significantly reduce their longevity and durability.
橡树岭国家实验室正在进行的一项广泛的电动垂直起降（eVTOL）研究项目的第一个重要发现是，eVTOL电池的功率和性能需求会显著降低其寿命和耐用性。

Unlike electric vehicle batteries, which typically drain at a steady rate, eVTOL batteries need varying amounts of power for flight stages such as climbing, hovering and descent, with some phases requiring high bursts of power.
与通常以稳定速率消耗的电动车电池不同，eVTOL电池在爬升、悬停和下降等飞行阶段需要不同量的电力，某些阶段需要高爆发能力。

"Now we know more about what is required of the eVTOL battery, we'll need to engineer systems differently to achieve that," said ORNL lead researcher Marm Dixit."Our focus is fundamental: What happens to the materials under these specific loads and operating conditions? We are trying to figure out the limitations of the battery chemistry we have now, and then tune the battery to bridge that gap."
“现在我们更了解电动垂直起降飞行器（eVTOL）电池的需求，需要以不同方式设计系统来实现目标，”ORNL首席研究员马尔姆·迪克西特表示。“我们的重点是基础研究：材料在这些特定负载和运行条件下会发生什么？我们正试图弄清现有电池化学的局限性，然后通过调整电池来跨链桥这一差距。”

The ORNL team made lithium-ion batteries at the DOE Battery Manufacturing Facility located at ORNL and ran them through simulated climb stages of eVTOL aircrafts. Scientists studied what happened inside the battery during cycling -- including how much energy was rapidly accessible during the demanding takeoff phase -- then tested the battery materials afterward for corrosion and other chemical or structural changes.
ORNL团队在位于ORNL的DOE电池制造工厂制作了锂离子电池，并通过模拟电动垂直起降飞行器的爬升阶段对电池进行了测试。科学家们研究了电池在循环过程中内部发生的变化——包括在要求严苛的起飞阶段能快速获取多少能量——随后测试了电池材料是否出现腐蚀及其他化学或结构变化。

Systematic investigation linking actual flight profiles to real-time physical battery operation is rare. However, it is key groundwork for developing new battery chemistries to achieve safe flight performance.
将实际飞行剖面与实时电池物理运行相关联的系统性研究十分罕见。然而，这是开发新型电池化学以实现安全飞行性能的关键基础工作。

The study incorporates testing of a new ORNL-developed electrolyte -- a material through which electrodes exchange ions -- against the current state-of-the art version used in lithium-ion batteries. Using the eVTOL mission profiles, the ORNL electrolyte performed better, retaining more capacity during the most power-demanding flight phases.
该研究对ORNL新开发的电解质（一种电极间交换离子的材料）与目前锂离子电池中最先进的版本进行了对比测试。在eVTOL任务配置下，ORNL电解质的性能更优，在功率需求最高的飞行阶段保持了更高的容量。

These results demonstrate the need for diversifying how battery performance is measured, Dixit said. "Your battery is not just capacity at the end of 1,000 cycles. It's what's happening within a cycle that tells you whether your system is going to work or crash. And the stakes are much higher here because you're asking how safe it is to go up in the air. This is a question we don't know the answer to -- yet."
迪克西特表示：“这些结果表明，需要以多样化的方式衡量电池性能。电池不仅仅是1000次循环后的容量，更重要的是一个循环周期内发生的情况，这决定了系统是正常运行还是崩溃。而在此情况下风险更高，因为你关注的是升空的安全性。这个问题我们目前还没有答案。”

Members of the research team are working on further improvements to the electrolyte and other battery components as they push the engineering limits for battery power, payload and safety. Recent experiments involved collecting real-world data from drone flights over the lab's campus, then using that information to develop a customized profile of the load and draw on the battery. Batteries made at ORNL were then run through same cycles.
研究团队成员正在对电解质和其他电池组件进行进一步改进，以突破电池功率、负载和安全性的工程极限。最近的实验包括从实验室校园上空的无人机飞行中收集真实数据，然后利用这些信息开发定制化的读档和电池消耗配置文件。随后，在ORNL制造的电池也进行了相同周期的测试。

Funding for the project was provided by the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Research Laboratory through the Versatile Tactical Power and Propulsion Essential Research Program. ORNL researchers Anuj Bisht and Ruhul Amin and former ORNL researcher Rachid Essehli contributed to the research, which also utilized the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences, a DOE Office of Science user facility at ORNL.
该项目的资金由美国陆军作战能力发展司令部研究实验室通过多功能战术动力与推进基础研究计划提供。ORNL研究人员Anuj Bisht和Ruhul Amin以及前ORNL研究人员Rachid Essehli参与了这项研究，研究还利用了纳米相材料科学中心——ORNL下属的美国能源部科学办公室用户设施。