arXiv subjects

Alberto Salvadori

Publications and source records attributed to Alberto Salvadori.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Battery open-circuit voltage is not purely chemical

Open-circuit-voltage (OCV) curves are commonly treated as intrinsic chemical properties of electrode materials. However, this view is incomplete. In ion-insertion batteries, OCV also depends on mechanical state and microstructure. Using finite-element simulations and asymptotic analysis, we show that particle swelling and external loads promote particle--particle contact that generates compressive stresses, shifting the inserted-ion chemical potential. The OCV correction is nonlinear, follows Hertzian contact scaling, and depends on particle arrangement. Identical materials can therefore exhibit different OCV curves in different electrode microstructures. Furthermore, in full cells, electrodes are mechanically coupled through the common stack stress. Thus, cell OCV is a chemo-mechanical property of the entire battery architecture, not chemistry alone.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2025

On the chemo-thermo-mechanics of constrained reactive mixtures of solids

Building upon the classical chemo-mechanical theory of Larch{é} and Cahn for equilibrium, numerous studies have investigated the transport of species in solids, with or without trapping phenomena. In most applications -- such as the swelling of hydrogels, hydrogen embrittlement in metals, and the transport of lithium or sodium in battery electrodes -- the formation of a new phase or compound can be directly associated with the concentration of the diffusing species. In the present work, we focus on the formation of solid mixtures made of multiple compounds, each characterized by its own volumetric expansion coefficient. Such a scenario arises, for instance, during the sodiation of tin anodes, among other systems. The classical chemo-mechanical framework is naturally recovered as a particular case of the proposed formulation. The theoretical framework developed herein elucidates and differentiates the concepts of phases and flowing species, while establishing rigorous connections between them. The present note is restricted to the general formulation of the governing equations, whereas application-specific developments will be addressed in forthcoming publications.

cond-mat.soft↗

arXiv2020

A novel hydraulic fractures growth formulation

Propagation of a fluid-driven crack in an impermeable linear elastic medium under axis-symmetric conditions is investigated in the present work. The fluid exerting the pressure inside the crack is an incompressible Newtonian one and its front is allowed to lag behind the propagating fracture tip. The tip cavity is considered as filled by fluid vapors under constant pressure having a negligible value with respect to the far field confining stress. A novel algorithm is here presented, which is capable of tracking the evolution of both the fluid and the fracture fronts. Particularly, the fracture tracking is grounded on a recent viscous regularization of the quasi-static crack propagation problem as a standard dissipative system. It allows a simple and effective approximation of the fracture front velocity by imposing Griffith's criterion at every propagation step. Furthermore, for each new fracture configuration, a non linear system of integro-differential equations has to be solved. It arises from the non local elastic relationship existing between the crack opening and the fluid pressure, together with the non linear lubrication equation governing the flow of the fluid inside the fracture.

math.NA↗