Mepco Schlenk Engineering College in Sivakasi, Tamil Nadu commissioned a battery testing lab in November 2025, built around a battery cell and pack testing rig with a digital twin.
The rig supports five chemistries: Li-ion, LFP, NMC, lead-acid and sodium-ion. Its digital twin, built using custom Python libraries, simulates charge-discharge cycles, temperature effects, ageing and electrical and thermal stress, reducing dependence on physical trials.
Testing several chemistries on one rig lets students compare them under identical conditions: the thermal stability of LFP against the higher energy density of NMC, or sodium-ion as an emerging alternative to lithium-based cells.
Students and researchers run real-time cycle and calendar life tests, evaluate capacity, monitor cell temperature, carry out thermal management studies and develop BMS algorithms, then compare results with the digital twin. This work maps to roles such as battery test engineer, BMS developer and cell research engineer.
Because the digital twin reproduces ageing and thermal stress in software, researchers can screen test plans and BMS algorithms virtually and reserve the physical rig for validation, which shortens long life-cycle studies. The rig suits final-year projects and postgraduate research as much as routine laboratory classes.
