SESSION 3: THERMAL RUNAWAY INITIATION

METHODS, FIT-FOR-PURPOSE TESTING RELATED TO

European Commission
Joint Research Centre – Institute for Energy and Transport (IET)
Westerduinweg 3, NL-1755 LE Petten, The Netherlands
 Session coverage
• Thermal initiation:
– External heating: symmetric/nonsymmetric heating, laser impact,
heating cartridge etc.
– Internal heating: heater embedded in cell etc.
• Mechanical initiation: nail/needle penetration, blunt rod object etc.
• Electrical initiation: deep discharge reverse polarization etc.
• Artificial ISC initiation: Incorporation of metals with low melting points,
heating wire inserted into the electrode stack of the cell etc.

13 March 2018 Introduction to Battery Thermal Runaway Testing Methods Slide No. 2
 Program
Meeting room Building 325 – 101 (1st floor)
13:20 – 13:35 Session Chairman and Keynote Presenter: P. Coman (Independent Researcher) -
INTRODUCTION TO BATTERY THERMAL RUNAWAY TESTING METHODS, FROM
SINGLE CELLS TO PACKS (15 min)
Rapporteur: M. Bielewski (JRC, C.1. Energy Storage Unit)
13:35 – 13:55 H. Döring (Head of Department Accumulators at Centre for Solar Energy and
Hydrogen Research (ZSW), Ulm, Germany) - INITIALIZING OF THERMAL
RUNAWAY FOR LITHIUM-ION CELLS FOCUSING ON THE EFFECT OF INTERNAL
SHORT CIRCUIT (20 min)
13:55 – 14:15 A. Golubkov (Researcher at Virtual Vehicle, Austria) - INITIATION OF THERMAL
RUNAWAY WITH DIFFERENT HEATING DEVICES (20 min)
14:15 – 14:35 M. Keyser (Vehicle electrification group lead at NREL, USA) - NREL/NASA
INTERNAL SHORT CIRCUIT INSTIGATOR IN LITHIUM ION CELLS (20 min)
14:35 – 15:05 Open discussion (30 min)
15:05 – 15:30 Coffee Break (325 Hall)

13 March 2018 Introduction to Battery Thermal Runaway Testing Methods Slide No. 3
 Bio & Content
Paul Coman, Ph.D.
• Ph.D. in Engineering @ SDU, Denmark
(Thesis: “Modelling of Li-Ion Battery Packs as Basis for Design
of Battery Thermal Management Systems”)
• Research Assistant @SDU 2013 & 2017
• Visiting Scholar @ UoSC 2015 (Dr. Ralph E. White)
• External Consultant (Indep.) @ NASA 2015 – Present
• Specialized in: Modeling of TR in battery packs

Content of presentation:
Introduction to battery thermal runaway testing methods from single cells to packs

13 March 2018 Introduction to Battery Thermal Runaway Testing Methods Slide No. 4
 Why testing batteries?
• Understand the phenomena/processes
• Simulate real-life situations
• Extract parameters for modeling
• Because we have to!
• Improving performance
• Improving safety

13 March 2018 Introduction to Battery Thermal Runaway Testing Methods Slide No. 5
 Hazard levels (EUCAR*)
Level Description Classification criteria and Effect
0 No effect No loss of functionality
1 Passive protection activated Cell reversibly damaged. Repair needed
2 Defect No leakage. Cell irreversibly damaged
3 Minor leakage or venting Weight loss <50% of electrolyte weight
4 Major leakage or venting No fire or flame. Weight loss ≥50% electrolyte
5 Fire or flame No explosion, but fire/combustion
6 Rupture No explosion, but internal parts expelled
7 Explosion Explosion (disintegration)
*European Council for Automotive R&D

1. E. Cabrera-Castillo, F. Niedermeier, and A. Jossen, “Calculation of the state of safety (SOS) for lithium ion batteries,” J. Power Sources, vol. 324, pp. 509–520, 2016.
2. SAE, Electric and Hybrid Electric Vehicle Rechargeable Energy Storage System (RESS) Safety and Abuse Testing, Surface Vehicle Recommended Practice SAEJ2464
NOV2009, SAE International, Nov. 2009

13 March 2018 Introduction to Battery Thermal Runaway Testing Methods Slide No. 6
 Testing for Standards&Regulations
Application
Test1
Transportation Grid Storage Telecom UPS*
Capacity ● ● ● ●
Hybrid Pulse Power Characterization ● ●
Cold Starting ● ●
Constant Power ● ●
Performance
Energy Efficiency ● ●
Self-Discharge ● ● ●
Response Time (Recovery) ● ●
Ramp Rate ●
External Short Circuit ● ● ● ●
Abnormal Charging Test ● ● ●
Electrical Abuse Forced Discharge ● ●
Reverse Charge ● ●
Internal Short Circuit ● ● ● ●
Impact (Crush/Crash) ● ● ●
Shock (Acceleration) ●
Vibration ●
Drop ● ● ●
Mechanical Abuse
Molded casing heating stress ● ● ● ●
Immersion ●
Penetration1 ● ●
Rollover test ●
Thermal Stability ● ● ● ●
Temperature cycling (Thermal shock) ●
Overheat test2 ●
Environmental Abuse
Extreme temperature test ●
Fires (Fuel fire) ●
Altitude simulation (Low pressure) ●
*Uninterrupted Power Supply, 1Chemical hazard testing is not included. 2Penetration can also fall under electrical abuse category as ISC
Adapted from Maciej Swierczynski, BATTERY TESTING PROCEDURES, Danish Battery Society Workshop, 2014 and other sources

13 March 2018 Introduction to Battery Thermal Runaway Testing Methods Slide No. 7
 Single cells – Mechanical Testing
• The penetration test is required under UL Subject 2271, UL Subject 2580
and SAE J2464. The test simultaneously measures rod acceleration, cell
deformation, cell temperature, cell terminal voltage and resistance

D. P. Finegan, B. Tjaden, T. M. M. Heenan, R. Jervis, M. Di Michiel, A. Rack, G. Hinds, D. J. L. Brett, and P. R. Shearing, “Tracking Internal Temperature and Structural Dynamics
during Nail Penetration of Lithium-Ion Cells,” J. Electrochem. Soc., vol. 164, no. 13, pp. A3285–A3291, 2017.
Mehmet Rona, YooEup Hyung, Brian Barnett and Suresh Sriramulu, The Relationship of the Nail Penetration Test to Safety of Li-Ion Cells , 2013 DOE Annual Merit
Review Meeting, 2012
SAE International - Study says lithium-ion batteries should rule for the next decade at least, 25-Apr-2013 (Retrieved 05.03.2018)

13 March 2018 Introduction to Battery Thermal Runaway Testing Methods Slide No. 8
 Reactor/Oven (Environmental abuse)
• Reactors can also be used for identifying the gases released by the cells
under controlled environment. Thermal stability in testing

W. Golubkov, D. Fuchs, J. Wagner, H. Wiltsche, C. Stangl, G. Fauler, G. Voitic, A. Thaler, and V. Hacker, “Thermal-runaway experiments on consumer Li-ion batteries with metal-oxide and olivin-
type cathodes,” RSC Adv., vol. 4, no. 7, pp. 3633–3642, 2014.
P. T. Coman, S. Rayman, and R. E. White, “A lumped model of venting during thermal runaway in a cylindrical Lithium Cobalt Oxide lithium-ion cell,” J. Power Sources, vol. 307, pp. 56–62, 2016.

13 March 2018 Introduction to Battery Thermal Runaway Testing Methods Slide No. 9
 Internal Short Circuit
• Using wax-based device implanted in separator

D. P. Finegan, E. Darcy, M. Keyser, B. Tjaden, T. M. M. Heenan, R. Jervis, J. J. Bailey, R. Malik, N. T. Vo, O. V. Magdysyuk, R. Atwood, M. Drakopoulos, M. DiMichiel, A. Rack, G.
Hinds, D. J. L. Brett, and P. R. Shearing, “Characterising thermal runaway within lithium-ion cells by inducing and monitoring internal short circuits,” Energy Environ. Sci.,
vol. 10, no. 6, pp. 1377–1388, 2017.

13 March 2018 Introduction to Battery Thermal Runaway Testing Methods Slide No. 10
 Internal Short Circuit
• Using SMA* to pierce the separator when heated

*SMA – Shape Memory Alloy

M. Zhang, J. Du, L. Liu, A. Stefanopoulou, J. Siegel, L. Lu, X. He, X. Xie, and M. Ouyang, “Internal Short Circuit Trigger Method for Lithium-Ion Battery Based on Shape
Memory Alloy,” J. Electrochem. Soc., vol. 164, no. 13, pp. A3038–A3044, 2017.

13 March 2018 Introduction to Battery Thermal Runaway Testing Methods Slide No. 11
 Battery Packs Testing
• Testing of performance with mechanical
testing
• Focus on propagation/cascading
• Penetration not always efficient
• Oven testing not always relevant

13 March 2018 Introduction to Battery Thermal Runaway Testing Methods Slide No. 12
 Nail Penetration in Packs

S. Wilke, B. Schweitzer, S. Khateeb, and S. Al-Hallaj, “Preventing thermal runaway propagation in lithium ion battery packs using a phase
change composite material: An experimental study,” J. Power Sources, vol. 340, pp. 51–59, 2017.

13 March 2018 Introduction to Battery Thermal Runaway Testing Methods Slide No. 13
 Internal Short Circuit in Packs

Courtesy of Eric Darcy (NASA JSC)

P. T. Coman, E. C. Darcy, C. T. Veje, and R. E. White, “Numerical analysis of heat propagation in a battery pack using a novel technology for triggering thermal runaway,” Appl.
Energy, vol. 203, 2017.
E. Darcy, “Passively Thermal Runaway Propagation Resistant Battery Module that Achieves > 190 Wh/kg,” in Sustainable Aircraft Symposium, 2016, pp. 1–49.

13 March 2018 Introduction to Battery Thermal Runaway Testing Methods Slide No. 14
 Program
Meeting room Building 325 – 101 (1st floor)
13:20 – 13:35 Session Chairman and Keynote Presenter: P. Coman (Independent Researcher) -
INTRODUCTION TO BATTERY THERMAL RUNAWAY TESTING METHODS, FROM
SINGLE CELLS TO PACKS (15 min)
Rapporteur: M. Bielewski (JRC, C.1. Energy Storage Unit)
13:35 – 13:55 H. Döring (Head of Department Accumulators at Centre for Solar Energy and
Hydrogen Research (ZSW), Ulm, Germany) - INITIALIZING OF THERMAL
RUNAWAY FOR LITHIUM-ION CELLS FOCUSING ON THE EFFECT OF INTERNAL
SHORT CIRCUIT (20 min)
13:55 – 14:15 A. Golubkov (Researcher at Virtual Vehicle, Austria) - INITIATION OF THERMAL
RUNAWAY WITH DIFFERENT HEATING DEVICES (20 min)
14:15 – 14:35 M. Keyser (Vehicle electrification group lead at NREL, USA) - NREL/NASA
INTERNAL SHORT CIRCUIT INSTIGATOR IN LITHIUM ION CELLS (20 min)
14:35 – 15:05 Open discussion (30 min)
15:05 – 15:30 Coffee Break (325 Hall)

13 March 2018 Introduction to Battery Thermal Runaway Testing Methods Slide No. 15