Degradation modeling
One model that predicts capacity loss, resistance rise, and irreversible swelling together: tuned once, and still right on cycling conditions it never saw.
Research Fellow · Battery Control Lab, University of Michigan
Sravan Pannala, Ph.D.
Li-ion battery degradation modeling · expansion sensing · state estimation
I build physics-based models that predict how lithium-ion cells lose capacity, gain resistance, and swell over their life, and the low-cost sensors that measure it. Eight years at Michigan's Battery Control Lab turning cell-level electrochemistry into tools that ship.
Looking for battery R&D and modeling roles in industry.
107 µm over one charge
378citations
10h-index
14peer-reviewed
2patents
Google Scholar, Aug 2026
The same cell, 339 cycles apart
As it degrades it holds less charge, and it breathes less. Connecting those two is what my thesis is about.
−23%capacity
−23%expansion
Model output, not raw measurement. Pannala et al., J. Electrochem. Soc. 171 010532 (2024)
What I work on
Expansion sensing
A $50 inductive sensor that measures cell thickness to half a micron, where the lab standard costs $2,000 a channel.
Accelerated aging
Simulating years of battery life in minutes by extrapolating between cycles instead of solving every one.
State estimation
Reading internal state (lithium plating, SEI growth, electrode health) from voltage and thickness a pack can actually measure.
Commercialization
Democratizing battery expansion measurements
Translating low-cost inductive expansion sensing out of the lab and toward manufacturing use, where expansion during formation reveals cell defects and lets formation protocols be shortened. Selected through a competitive process ending in an in-person pitch to an oversight committee of industry and venture professionals.
- Cost per channel
- ~$50 vs ~$2,000 for the LVDT standard
- Resolution
- 0.5 µm
- Deployment
- 120 fixtures
- Maturity
- TRL 6
Selected work
Managing silicon burn-out via onboard material diagnostics for durable high-energy density batteries
Degradation and expansion of lithium-ion batteries with silicon/graphite anodes: Impact of pretension, temperature, C-rate and state-of-charge window
How mechanical pretension, temperature, and how hard you cycle a cell change the way silicon-graphite anodes age and swell.
Consistently tuned battery lifetime predictive model of capacity loss, resistance increase, and irreversible thickness growth
One model, tuned once, that predicts capacity loss, resistance rise, and permanent swelling together, and holds up on cycling conditions it never saw during training.
Code
shinyNBA
Ten deployed analytics applications
Shipped and operated, not just written.
PythonShinypandasParquet
Recognition
2025Best Poster, Electric Vehicle Center Symposium, University of Michigan
2022Best Paper Runner-Up, Modeling, Estimation and Controls Conference (MECC)
2021Best Paper Runner-Up, Modeling, Estimation and Controls Conference (MECC)