Experimental and simulation investigation for prismatic lithium-ion battery cells under impact loading

Abstract

In the current work, prismatic lithium-ion battery (LIB) cells were impacted in various rigid cylinder loading speeds (v = 1, 5, 10, 2000 and 5000 mm/s), which provided the data basis for establishing a practical and reasonable LIB cell damage assessment method. Based on thermal-runaway cell safety borders (TCSB) and undamaged cell safe borders (UCSB), the deformed cells can be classified into safe, risk and failure regions. With the increment of the v values, the UCSB and TCSB of cells decreased linearly along a logarithm axis. Moreover, the relationships between key cell parameters (cell thickness, separator thickness and separator fracture strain) and the cell deformation limits (DL) under rigid cylinder impact loads were also revealed. A DL prediction method was newly introduced for the prismatic LIB cells with different sizes. Finally, the tensile mechanical data of cell components (anodes, cathodes and separators) were also measured for cell local detailed simulation models. By the simulations, the effect of the frictional behaviors between cell components on the deformation processes and failure mechanisms of LIB cells were deeply discussed.