Analysis of a Relaxation Process Caused by the Load Variation Adapted on the Basis of Second Order Electrical Model

The relaxation process of lithium batteries caused by load variation is considered. It is shown that such processes have strong dependence on internal physical and chemical processes and battery technical conditions. Theoretical expressions of the relaxation process caused by a step-like load variation have been obtained for 1st and 2nd order equivalent electrical circuits. The experimental investigations show that the obtained models fit the real relaxation processes and the behavior of the identified parameters could be explained by specific features of physical and chemical processes within the lithium battery. It should be noted that the obtained results can be generalized for a different type of electrochemical power source. The proposed approach makes it possible to provide means for electrochemical power source characterization and diagnostic, the main advantages of which are good time localization of measurement procedures and inexpensive apparatus implementation.

Thermodynamic Analysis of Relaxation Model for Non-Equilibrium Phase Behavior of Hydrocarbon Mixtures

Mathematical models of phase behavior are widely used to describe multiphase oil and gas-condensate systems during hydrocarbon recovery from natural petroleum reservoirs. Previously a non-equilibrium phase behavior model was proposed as an extension over generally adopted equilibrium models. It is based on relaxation of component chemical potentials difference between phases and provides accurate calculations in some typical situations when non-instantaneous changing of phase fractions and compositions in response to variations of pressure or total composition is to be considered. In this paper we present a thermodynamic analysis of the relaxation model. General equations of non-equilibrium thermodynamics for multiphase flows in porous media are considered, and reduced entropy balance equation for the relaxation process is obtained. Isotropic relaxation process is simulated for a real multicomponent hydrocarbon system with different values of characteristic relaxation time using the non-equilibrium model implemented in the PVT Designer module of the RFD tNavigator simulation software. The results are processed with a special algorithm implemented in Matlab to calculate graphs of the total entropy time derivative and its constituents in the entropy balance equation. It is shown that the constituents have different signs, and the greatest influence on the entropy is associated with the interphase flow of the major component of the mixture and the change of the total system volume in the isotropic process. The characteristic relaxation time affects the rate at which the entropy is approaching its maximum value.