Design of Primary and Secondary Cells

A discussion is given of the derivation and application of an equation which gives an excellent description of a wide variety of cell and battery discharges. This equation gives the cell potential during discharge as a function of discharge time, current density, and certain other factors. It makes possible a complete description of cell discharge characteristics, using a minimum of experimental data and at the same time pinpointing experimental errors. It can also be used to describe cell charges, capacities, power evolution, and to predict capacities. A description is given of a simple numerical method for fitting this equation to a particular set of battery discharge curves. A graphical method is described for comparing characteristics of various types of cells.