Experimental Investigation of Thermal Runaway Behavior and Hazards of a 1440 Ah LiFePO 4 Battery Pack

Hao Chen, Kai Yang (), Youwei Liu (), Mingjie Zhang, Hao Liu, Jialiang Liu, Zhanzhan Qu and Yilin Lai
Additional contact information
Hao Chen: State Key Laboratory of Operation and Control of Renewable Energy & Storage Systems, China Electric Power Research Institute, Beijing 100192, China
Kai Yang: State Key Laboratory of Operation and Control of Renewable Energy & Storage Systems, China Electric Power Research Institute, Beijing 100192, China
Youwei Liu: State Key Laboratory of Operation and Control of Renewable Energy & Storage Systems, China Electric Power Research Institute, Beijing 100192, China
Mingjie Zhang: State Key Laboratory of Operation and Control of Renewable Energy & Storage Systems, China Electric Power Research Institute, Beijing 100192, China
Hao Liu: State Key Laboratory of Operation and Control of Renewable Energy & Storage Systems, China Electric Power Research Institute, Beijing 100192, China
Jialiang Liu: State Key Laboratory of Operation and Control of Renewable Energy & Storage Systems, China Electric Power Research Institute, Beijing 100192, China
Zhanzhan Qu: State Key Laboratory of Operation and Control of Renewable Energy & Storage Systems, China Electric Power Research Institute, Beijing 100192, China
Yilin Lai: State Key Laboratory of Operation and Control of Renewable Energy & Storage Systems, China Electric Power Research Institute, Beijing 100192, China

Energies, 2023, vol. 16, issue 8, 1-14

Abstract: The thermal runaway (TR) behavior and combustion hazards of lithium-ion battery (LIB) packs directly determine the implementation of firefighting and flame-retardants in energy storage systems. This work studied the TR propagation process and dangers of large-scale LIB packs by experimental methods. The LIB pack consisted of twenty-four 60 Ah (192 Wh) LIBs with LiFePO 4 (LFP) as the cathode material. Flame performance, temperature, smoke production, heat release rate (HRR), and mass loss were analyzed during the experiment. The results indicated that TR propagation of the LIB pack developed from the outside to the inside and from the middle to both sides. The development process could be divided into five stages corresponding to the combustion HRR peaks. In the initial stages, the main factor causing LFP battery TR under heating conditions was the external heat source. With the propagation of TR, heat conduction between batteries became the main factor. Hazard analysis found that the HRR max of the LIB pack was 314 KW, more than eight times that of a single 60 Ah battery under heating conditions. The LIB pack had higher normalized mass loss and normalized THR (6.94 g/Ah and 187 KJ/Ah, respectively) than a single LFP battery. This study provides a reference for developing strategies to address TR propagation or firefighting in energy storage systems.

Keywords: LiFePO 4 battery; large-scale battery pack; fire behavior; thermal runaway; propagation; hazards (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/16/8/3398/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/16/8/3398/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:16:y:2023:i:8:p:3398-:d:1121788

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().