CURRENT DISTRIBUTION IN A HORIZON LEAD-ACID-BATTERY DURING DISCHARGE

A simple mathematical model is presented and used to analyze the potential and current distributions in a HORIZON(R) sealed lead-acid battery. It was found that an increase in the thickness of an electrode would not enhance the discharge rate of that electrode; instead, it causes the transfer current distribution to be less uniform in the electrode. Also, the ohmic drop across the separator would decrease with a decrease in the thickness of the separator more rapidly when the thickness is small than when it is large. In addition, it was found that efficient high-capacity, high-rate electrodes must consider the electrode reaction kinetics because of the high sensitivity of transfer current distribution to the reaction kinetics.