A novel dual-purpose thermal runaway propagation mitigation system using a liquid cooling pipe with aperture sealed by films

Abstract

Preventing thermal runaway (TR) propagation in lithium-ion battery (LIB) modules is essential for the safe application of LIBs. The current study proposes a novel dual-purpose system using a liquid cooling pipe with aperture sealed by films (LCPASF). The system can maintain the module within the desired temperature by the rapid heat dissipation of the liquid cooling during the normal operation. Once TR occurs, the film on the aperture of the pipe melts and the coolant in the pipe correspondingly releases to cool the cells to prevent the TR propagation. Induced by heater, all of the cells in the module get involved in TR without preventing measures. Systems using polyethylene (PE), biaxially oriented polypropylene (BOPP), polyimide (PI) and polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) films limit the TR within 0, 1, 1 and 3 cells, respectively. The melting temperature of PE is much lower than the TR onset temperature, thus the PE film melts before the TR occurrence and no cells get TR. For the film with melting temperature much higher than the TR onset temperature, increasing the aperture diameter can improve the cooling effect. This study provides critical insights for the design of thermal management and TR propagation mitigation system for LIB modules.