Battery models are riddled with incongruous values of parameters considered for validation. In this work, thermally coupled electrochemical model of the pouch is developed and discharge tests on a LiFePO4 pouch cell at different discharge rates are used to optimize the LiFePO4 battery model by determining parameters for which there is no consensus in literature. A discussion on parameter determination, selection and comparison with literature values has been made. The electrochemical model is a P2D model, while the thermal model considers heat transfer in 3D. It is seen that even with no phase change considered for LiFePO4 electrode, the model is able to simulate the discharge curves over a wide range of discharge rates with a single set of parameters provided a dependency of the radius of the LiFePO4 electrode on discharge rate. The approach of using a current dependent radius is shown to be equivalent to using a current dependent diffusion coefficient. Both these modelling approaches are a representation of the particle size distribution in the electrode. Additionally, the model has been thermally validated, which increases the confidence level in the selection of values of parameters. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.