Finite Strain Ductile Phase-Field Modelling under Chemo Thermo-Mechanical Coupling: Application to Viscoplastic Silicon Anode Particles
Armel TENE TESSE, Seydou HEBIE, Emmanuelle LANCELLE BELTRAN, Habibou MAITOURNAM, Ziad MOUMNI
Abstract. The urgent need to reduce CO₂ emissions is driving the development of low-carbon transportation technologies, including lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles, where energy density is one of several key performance considerations. Silicon‑based composite anodes are promising candidates due to their high lithium storage capacity. However, their large volumetric expansion during lithiation induces severe mechanical degradation. In this work, a finite‑strain ductile phase‑field framework coupled with viscoplasticity and diffusion‑driven chemical expansion is developed to model damage evolution in silicon composite materials. Damage growth is driven by elastic and viscoplastic energy contributions, within a consistent thermodynamic chemo-thermo‑mechanical framework, with a particular focus here on chemo-mechanical effects. The model is first used to investigate the influence of lithium diffusion on ductile crack propagation, considering diffusion‑induced chemical expansion while neglecting mechanical feedback on transport. It is then applied to simulate continuous damage evolution in a silicon particle using a fully coupled chemo-thermo‑mechanical formulation under electrochemically consistent loading conditions. Numerical results demonstrate the influence of viscoplastic dissipation, transport kinetics, and operating rate on damage accumulation. The proposed framework provides a robust multiphysics tool for analysing chemo‑mechanically driven degradation in silicon‑based anodes and establishes a solid basis for future fatigue and lifetime investigations.
Keywords
Lithium-Ion Battery, Ductile Damage, Silicon Anode, Chemo‑Thermo‑Mechanical Coupling, Finite-Strain
Published online 11/8/2026, 5 pages
Copyright © 2026 by the author(s)
Published under license by Materials Research Forum LLC., Millersville PA, USA
Citation: Armel TENE TESSE, Seydou HEBIE, Emmanuelle LANCELLE BELTRAN, Habibou MAITOURNAM, Ziad MOUMNI, Finite Strain Ductile Phase-Field Modelling under Chemo Thermo-Mechanical Coupling: Application to Viscoplastic Silicon Anode Particles, Materials Research Proceedings, Vol. 73, pp 151-155, 2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.21741/9781644904459-30
The article was published as article 30 of the book Mechanics of Advanced Materials and Structures
Content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI.
References
[1] M.T. McDowell, S.W. Lee, W.D. Nix, Y. Cui, 25th Anniversary Article: Understanding the Lithiation of Silicon and Other Alloying Anodes for Lithium-Ion Batteries, Adv. Mater. 25 (2013) 4966–4985. https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.201301795
[2] T. Hu, B. Talamini, A.J. Stershic, M.R. Tupek, J.E. Dolbow, A variational phase-field model for ductile fracture with coalescence dissipation, Comput. Mech. 68 (2021) 311–335. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00466-021-02033-1
[3] C.V. Di Leo, E. Rejovitzky, L. Anand, Diffusion–deformation theory for amorphous silicon anodes: The role of plastic deformation on electrochemical performance, Int. J. Solids Struct. 67–68 (2015) 283–296. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijsolstr.2015.04.028
[4] S.R. Shah, L.S. de Vasconcelos, K. Zhao, Computational Modeling of Electrochemomechanics of High-Capacity Composite Electrodes in Li-Ion Batteries, J. Appl. Mech. 89 (2022) 081005. https://doi.org/10.1115/1.4054759
[5] J. Yang, W. Tan, Fully coupled multiphysics modelling of fracture behaviour in silicon particles during lithiation–delithiation using the phase-field method, Engineering with Computers 42 (2026) 7. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00366-025-02233-w
[6] V.A. Sethuraman, M.J. Chon, M. Shimshak, V. Srinivasan, P.R. Guduru, In situ measurements of stress evolution in silicon thin films during electrochemical lithiation and delithiation, J. Power Sources 195 (2010) 5062–5066. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpowsour.2010.02.013
[7] Y. Zhen, K. Wu, Y. Lu, M. Liu, L. He, Y. Ni, A thermodynamically-consistent non-isothermal phase-field model for probing evolution of crack propagation and phase transformation, Int. J. Mech. Sci. 270 (2024) 109122. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijmecsci.2024.109122
[8] M. Masmoudi, Z. Moumni, F. Bidault, Analysis of the Thermo-Mechanical-Chemical Coupled Response of a Lithium-Ion Battery Particle during a Charge-Discharge Cycle, J. Electrochem. Soc. 166 (2019) A5445–A5461. https://doi.org/10.1149/2.0631903jes
