Flow Battery Research Collective

kirk

Made some Linux AppImages of improved MYSTAT software for anyone who uses it! Also runs on Windows ofc, it's just Python.

https://codeberg.org/FBRC/mystat/releases

kirk

Filmed myself building a cell so you can see the whole process start-to-finish! Still working on updating the documentation for the clampable-cell branch. It works pretty darn well without any bolts.

PeerTube: https://spectra.video/w/dxjsd8AR2uAvnA6UMnnb8G

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hT_5Bde2IVY

kirk

It's the same electrolyte formulation as currently in the docs

kirk

Link: https://dualpower.supply/posts/lab-notebook-9/

kirk

Doing some tests now on this to get my wet lab back in action, here are the conditions and results so far on my blog

kirk

A great demo of all the transport phenomena at play in electrochemical systems!

kirk

Also, this reminds me of the OpenAFPM project - they also use FreeCAD and provide a dashboard for people to input custom parameters for a small wind turbine generator, there is some FEM, and then design files are output. There is a video demo here: https://www.openafpm.net/cad-visualization

I know a few of the folks behind that project, I'm sure they'd be happy to give input on how to accomplish a similar goal but for flow batteries.

kirk

@muntasirms Muntasir, this is awesome! Sorry for the delay in getting back to you, I've just watched your walkthrough video today. The webapp loads for me but the viewport is empty? At least on a few different browsers it seems.

I watched the walkthrough though, very nice work! It looks very clean, would be awesome actually to have a 3D interface like this on the FBRC homepage, to make it a bit cooler like the https://www.open-quantum.org project.

It would be great to share the code as open-source as well, I am not familiar with the build123d library and would like to see how you've done it.

I have also been working on some automated exports from FreeCAD, to enable some CI/CD on our documentation, but nothing web-facing: https://codeberg.org/FBRC/RFB-dev-kit/src/branch/clampable-cell/CAD/FreeCAD/FreeCAD-exports.py

@muntasirms said in Build-a-Batt - A fully parameterized flow cell stack model:

That makes boundary condition declaration and the like much easier to automate as well - so I'm in the process of slotting this into an automated hydraulics/electrochemical simulation suite. Imagine generating your custom model and simulating a "digital twin" for estimates of performance prior to purchasing materials or finalizing design.

The FreeCAD models are also fully parameterizable, and can at least automatically update in the CfdOf workbench, but the whole thing in Python would be easier to handle for hardcore simulation, with any echem phenomena. This would be really cool, I would love to see you tackle some simulation/flow frame optimization! I have my hands full currently so I'm not sure when I'd get around to it.

Screenshot of the flow-frame file showing the OpenFoam CFD setup.

FYI, we still haven't actually done cycling experiments with the "large-format" 175 cm2 cell, so the design is mostly likely going to change somewhat!

I am not sure the small cell (18 cm2) design you show would seal also - we did a lot of testing with that sort of approach early on and it was hard to print the chemical resistant barbed fittings and endplates in one piece, which is why we separated it out in the dev kit.

@muntasirms said in Build-a-Batt - A fully parameterized flow cell stack model:

or a "fat stack" (3500cm^2) with extra, thicker bolts

I love it! I really hope we can get here one day we will certainly need all hands on deck to do so.

@muntasirms said in Build-a-Batt - A fully parameterized flow cell stack model:

I'm very open to constructive criticism on any part of the project (from ideation to UX to engineering). Have fun fiddling with it and let me know what you think!

Really happy that you've kicked this off, it shows whats possible in this space. Right now, I will be sticking to FreeCAD for prototyping and derisking - I'm much faster in a graphical CAD environment implementing design changes than in a code-based CAD approach. But I think the two are complementary - especially for simulation and customization.

There was actually a project that allowed for in-browser editing of FreeCAD files in a way sort of similar to your web app - a startup called Ondsel (now out of business) that made some contributions to FreeCAD source. They had a cloud tool called Lens that allowed you to build this sort of webapp directly from the FreeCAD file by exposing certain parameters. When they shut down they gave everything to FreeCAD, it looks like the Lens project is still going and you can host it yourself: https://freecad.github.io/lens-docs/

This might be a way to combine your customization approach directly with the FreeCAD source files? I would be a fan of this approach if we could link everything as closely as possible.

For UX: would be great to have a dropdown or similar to select templates for different standard configs, like the small cell/FBRC large-format/fat stack, etc.

kirk

This video seems to be AI generated and doesn't have that much real information? I have seen Ca-ion systems from (I think) a German group that looked good, but had a lot of organic synthetic steps if I remember correctly.

kirk

@rowow said in Using cnc router cut PVC foam boards as cell frame:

The long term goal and my personal next goal is to get into injection molding which of course is the best option.

At scale, definitely!

@rowow said in Using cnc router cut PVC foam boards as cell frame:

Ill see about uploading the cell fusion 360 model

A .step file would also be great so I could look at it in FreeCAD! I don't have a Fusion 360 license. I'd be curious to see if we could take a similar approach.

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