Hazard comparison of thermal runaway of electric marine battery cabinet under different trigger modes

Abstract

Currently, the transportation industry, especially shipping, is still accompanied by serious carbon emissions and pollution. Electric ships are the most promising way to solve this problem. However, the application of electric ships in maritime affairs also faces many technical difficulties. This paper studies the heat generation and heat transfer in electric Marine battery cabinets (EMBC). Based on the Multi-Scale and Multi-Domain (MSMD) solution method, this study uses the Newman, Tiedemann, Gu, and Kim (NTGK) battery model to solve the thermal runaway propagation (TRP) of the EMBC, and then makes a visual analysis of the TRP of the EMBC with the three-layer Battery module (BM) structure. Furthermore, the TRP of the three-layer BM is compared based on three different triggering modes. Through analysis and comparison, it is found that among the three TR triggering modes: single battery heating, heat source at the bottom of the module, and heat source at the top. The first mode corresponds to a maximum heat release (HR) of 214.7 GJ, while the third mode exhibits a minimum HR of 212.3 GJ. Furthermore, the maximum temperature reached by the battery under the third mode is 1568 K, which is lower than that achieved in the other two modes. Additionally, it should be noted that the second mode has a higher maximum HR rate of 5772 GW/m3 compared to the third mode. The TR hazard resulting from heating at the bottom of the battery module outweighs that caused by heating at the top, without taking into account human-induced heating factors. The propagation of TR triggered by a single heat source throughout the EMBC can be inhibited within 226 s in the same layer, and prevented from spreading to the remaining layers for up to 596 s. In the present study, a new insight is presented to reveal the TR characteristics of the EMBC under different triggering modes, and quantify the TR duration.