Battery Lifetime Analysis and Simulation Tool (BLAST) Documentation

The deployment and use of lithium-ion batteries in automotive and stationary energy storage applications must be optimized to justify their high up-front costs. Given that batteries degrade with use and storage, such optimizations must evaluate many years of operation. As the degradation mechanisms are sensitive to temperature, state-of-charge histories, current levels, and cycle depth andfrequency, it is important to model both the battery and the application to a high level of detail to ensure battery response is accurately predicted. To address these issues, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory has developed the Battery Lifetime Analysis and Simulation Tool (BLAST) suite of tools. This suite of tools pairs NREL's high-fidelity battery degradation model with a batteryelectrical and thermal performance model, application-specific electrical and thermal performance models of the larger system (e.g., an electric vehicle), application-specific system use data (e.g., vehicle travel patterns and driving data), and historic climate data from cities across the United States. This provides highly realistic, long-term predictions of battery response and therebyenables quantitative comparisons of varied battery use strategies.