Ignas obtained a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from Newcastle University and is now a PhD student in lithium-ion battery modelling. His particular focus is on the continuum scale heat generation and degradation in batteries.
The aims of the PhD project are to develop high fidelity models which incorporate electrochemistry, thermodynamics and degradation in order to predict how the thermal maps change over the life of a battery and use this information to study how batteries degrade, predict when they will fail and if they are safe to re-use in 2nd life applications.
This has wide-ranging implications, such as creating longer lasting battery designs, developing extremely rapid charging methods and, most importantly, enabling safe re-use of lithium-ion batteries.