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United States Advanced Battery Consortium Battery Abuse Testing Manual for Electric and Hybrid Vehicle Applications

Torres-Castro, Loraine T.; Lamb, Joshua H.

This report describes recommended abuse testing procedures for rechargeable energy storage systems (RESSs) for electric vehicles. This report serves as a revision to the USABC Electrical Energy Storage System Abuse Test Manual for Electric and Hybrid Electric Vehicle Applications (SAND99-0497).

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TYPE Other Report YEAR 2022
OSTIDOI

I.6.C Battery Safety Testing

Lamb, Joshua H.

Abuse tests are designed to determine the safe operating limits of HEV\PHEV energy storage devices. Testing is intended to achieve certain worst-case scenarios to yield quantitative data on cell\module\pack response, allowing for failure mode determination and guiding developers toward improved materials and designs. Standard abuse tests with defined start and end conditions are performed on all devices to provide comparison between technologies. New tests and protocols are developed and evaluated to more closely simulate real world failure conditions. While robust mechanical models for vehicles and vehicle components exist, there is a gap for mechanical modeling of EV batteries. The challenge with developing a mechanical model for a battery is the heterogeneous nature of the materials and components (polymers, metals, metal oxides, liquids).

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TYPE Other Report YEAR 2021
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Investigating the Role of Energy Density in Thermal Runaway of Lithium-Ion Batteries with Accelerating Rate Calorimetry

Journal of the Electrochemical Society

Lamb, Joshua H.; Torres-Castro, Loraine T.; Hewson, John C.; Shurtz, Randy S.; Preger, Yuliya P.

This work uses accelerating rate calorimetry to evaluate the impact of cell chemistry, state of charge, cell capacity, and ultimately cell energy density on the total energy release and peak heating rates observed during thermal runaway of Li-ion batteries. While the traditional focus has been using calorimetry to compare different chemistries in cells of similar sizes, this work seeks to better understand how applicable small cell data is to understand the thermal runaway behavior of large cells as well as determine if thermal runaway behaviors can be more generally tied to aspects of lithium-ion cells such as total stored energy and specific energy. We have found a strong linear correlation between the total enthalpy of the thermal runaway process and the stored energy of the cell, apparently independent of cell size and state of charge. We have also shown that peak heating rates and peak temperatures reached during thermal runaway events are more closely tied to specific energy, increasing exponentially in the case of peak heating rates.

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TYPE Journal Article YEAR 2021
ScopusOSTIDOI

Predicting cell-to-cell failure propagation and limits of propagation in lithium-ion cell stacks

Proceedings of the Combustion Institute

Kurzawski, Andrew K.; Torres-Castro, Loraine T.; Shurtz, Randy S.; Lamb, Joshua H.; Hewson, John C.

Thermal runaway of Li-ion batteries is a risk that is magnified when stacks of lithium-ion cells are used for large scale energy storage. When limits of propagation can be identified so that systems can be designed to prevent large scale cascading failure even if a failure does occur, these systems will be safer. The prediction of cell-to-cell failure propagation and the propagation limits in lithium-ion cell stacks were studied to better understand and identify safe designs. A thermal-runaway model was considered based on recent developments in thermochemical source terms. Propagating failure was characterized by temperatures above which calorimetry data is available. Results showed high temperature propagating failure predictions are too rapid unless an intra-particle diffusion limit is included, introducing a Damköhler number limiter into the rate expression. This new model form was evaluated against cell-to-cell failure propagation where the end cell of a stack is forced into thermal runaway through a nail-induced short circuit. Limits of propagation for this configuration are identified. Results showed cell-to-cell propagation predictions are consistent with measurements over a range of cell states of charge and with the introduction of metal plates between cells to add system heat capacity representative of structural members. This consistency extends from scenarios where propagation occurs through scenarios where propagation is prevented.

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TYPE Journal Article YEAR 2021
ScopusOSTIDOI

Evaluation of Multi-cell Failure Propagation

Lamb, Joshua H.; Torres-Castro, Loraine T.; Stanley, June S.; Grosso, Christopher G.; Gray, Lucas S.

Failure propagation testing is of increasing interest to the designers and end users of battery systems. One of the chief difficulties, however, is choosing an appropriate initiation method to perform the test. Single cell abuse testing is typically used to initiate thermal runaway but this can involve a large amount of additional energy injected into the system. It is assumed that this will have some impact on the behavior of a propagating thermal runaway event, but there is little data available as to how significant this would be. Further, it is ultimately difficult to develop viable propagation tests for compliance and public safety activities without better knowledge of how test methods will impact the results. This work looks at propagating battery failure with a variety of chemistries, formats, configurations and initiation methods to determine the level of significance of the chosen initiation method on the test results. We have ultimately found while there is some impact on the detailed results of propagation testing, in most cases other factors, particularly the energy density of the system play a much greater role in the likelihood of a propagation event consuming an entire battery. We have also provided some guidelines for test design to support best practices in testing.

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TYPE SAND Report YEAR 2020
OSTIDOI

Passive Mitigation of Cascading Propagation in Multi-Cell Lithium Ion Batteries

Journal of the Electrochemical Society

Torres-Castro, Loraine T.; Kurzawski, Andrew K.; Hewson, John C.; Lamb, Joshua H.

The heat generated during a single cell failure within a high energy battery system can force adjacent cells into thermal runaway, creating a cascading propagation effect through the entire system. This work examines the response of modules of stacked pouch cells after thermal runaway is induced in a single cell. The prevention of cascading propagation is explored on cells with reduced states of charge and stacks with metal plates between cells. Reduced states of charge and metal plates both reduce the energy stored relative to the heat capacity, and the results show how cascading propagation may be slowed and mitigated as this varies. These propagation limits are correlated with the stored energy density. Results show significant delays between thermal runaway in adjacent cells, which are analyzed to determine intercell contact resistances and to assess how much heat energy is transmitted to cells before they undergo thermal runaway. A propagating failure of even a small pack may stretch over several minutes including delays as each cell is heated to the point of thermal runaway. This delay is described with two new parameters in the form of gap-crossing and cell-crossing time to grade the propensity of propagation from cell to cell.

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TYPE Journal Article YEAR 2020
ScopusOSTIDOI
Results 1–50 of 153
Results 1–50 of 153