A Novel Framework for Consequence Prediction of Battery Thermal Runaway Failure Hazards

Abstract

Lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) are widely utilized for energy storage in a broad range of applications, such as handheld electronics, emobility, spaceflight vehicles, etc. Thermal runaway (TR) and subsequent combustion of LIBs represent several significant hazards to consumers, including substantial energy release, jet flames, toxic gases, airborne particulates, and secondary explosions. Numerous experimental investigations in the literature have measured the energy release and chemical composition of off-gasses during LIB TR, but little theoretical work has been completed to this end. The current study focuses on prediction of product chemical composition, flame temperature, and energy release for LIBs undergoing TR failure through implementation of chemical equilibrium analyses (CEA). Theoretical calculations for various LIB electrolyte decomposition and combustion scenarios were compared to data available in the literature. Excellent agreement was observed between predicted and experimental measured heats of combustion for plain LIB electrolytes, indicating the global thermodynamic properties are well captured by the modeling approach. Theoretical product gas production (i.e., moles of gas per mole of electrolyte) and composition were compared to experimentally measured values from accelerated rate calorimetry experiments. The results indicate that general trends are well captured by the CEA modeling approach developed here and that the standard experimental protocols documented within the literature can be improved. Similar theoretical predictions for battery failure experiments (product gas composition and energy release) are also presented. The novel modeling framework presented here can be used in future work to evaluate LIB failure hazards for existing systems and to evaluate the safety of future designs. In addition, this modeling approach provides unique insight into how adjusting global battery chemistry (cathode, electrolyte, etc.) changes the potential hazards produced battery thermal runaway and failure. Figure 1