Mechanism of internal thermal runaway propagation in blade batteries

Blade batteries are extensively used in electric vehicles,but unavoidable thermal runaway is an inherent threat to their safe use.This study experimentally investigated the mechanism underlying thermal runaway propagation within a blade battery by using a nail to trigger thermal runaway and thermocouples to track its propagation inside a cell.The results showed that the internal thermal runaway could propagate for up to 272 s,which is comparable to that of a traditional battery module.The velocity of the thermal runaway propagation fluctuated between 1 and 8 mm s^(-1),depending on both the electrolyte content and high-temperature gas diffusion.In the early stages of thermal runaway,the electrolyte participated in the reaction,which intensified the thermal runaway and accelerated its propagation.As the battery temperature increased,the electrolyte evaporated,which attenuated the acceleration effect.Gas diffusion affected thermal runaway propagation through both heat transfer and mass transfer.The experimental results indicated that gas diffusion accelerated the velocity of thermal runaway propagation by 36.84%.We used a 1D mathematical model and confirmed that convective heat transfer induced by gas diffusion increased the velocity of thermal runaway propagation by 5.46%-17.06%.Finally,the temperature rate curve was analyzed,and a three-stage mechanism for internal thermal runaway propagation was proposed.In Stage I,convective heat transfer from electrolyte evaporation locally increased the temperature to 100℃.In Stage II,solid heat transfer locally increases the temperature to trigger thermal runaway.In StageⅢ,thermal runaway sharply increases the local temperature.The proposed mechanism sheds light on the internal thermal runaway propagation of blade batteries and offers valuable insights into safety considerations for future design.

Effect of safety valve types on the gas venting behavior and thermal runaway hazard severity of large-format prismatic lithium iron phosphate batteries

The safety valve is an important component to ensure the safe operation of lithium-ion batteries(LIBs).However,the effect of safety valve type on the thermal runaway(TR)and gas venting behavior of LIBs,as well as the TR hazard severity of LIBs,are not known.In this paper,the TR and gas venting behavior of three 100 A h lithium iron phosphate(LFP)batteries with different safety valves are investigated under overheating.Compared to previous studies,the main contribution of this work is in studying and evaluating the effect of gas venting behavior and TR hazard severity of LFP batteries with three safety valve types.Two significant results are obtained:(Ⅰ)the safety valve type dominates over gas venting pressure of battery during safety venting,the maximum gas venting pressure of LFP batteries with a round safety valve is 3320 Pa,which is one order of magnitude higher than other batteries with oval or cavity safety valve;(Ⅱ)the LFP battery with oval safety valve has the lowest TR hazard as shown by the TR hazard assessment model based on gray-fuzzy analytic hierarchy process.This study reveals the effect of safety valve type on TR and gas venting,providing a clear direction for the safety valve design.

Early warning method for thermal runaway of lithium-ion batteries under thermal abuse condition based on online electrochemical impedance monitoring

Early warning of thermal runaway(TR)of lithium-ion batteries(LIBs)is a significant challenge in current application scenarios.Timely and effective TR early warning technology is urgently required considering the current fire safety situation of LIBs.In this work,we report an early warning method of TR with online electrochemical impedance spectroscopy(EIS)monitoring,which overcomes the shortcomings of warning methods based on traditional signals such as temperature,gas,and pressure with obvious delay and high cost.With in-situ data acquisition through accelerating rate calorimeter(ARC)-EIS test,the crucial features of TR were extracted using the RReliefF algorithm.TR mechanisms corresponding to the features at specific frequencies were analyzed.Finally,a three-level warning strategy for single battery,series module,and parallel module was formulated,which can successfully send out an early warning signal ahead of the self-heating temperature of battery under thermal abuse condition.The technology can provide a reliable basis for the timely intervention of battery thermal management and fire protection systems and is expected to be applied to electric vehicles and energy storage devices to realize early warning and improve battery safety.

Heat transfer enhanced inorganic phase change material compositing carbon nanotubes for battery thermal management and thermal runaway propagation mitigation

Developing technologies that can be applied simultaneously in battery thermal management(BTM)and thermal runaway(TR)mitigation is significant to improving the safety of lithium-ion battery systems.Inorganic phase change material(PCM)with nonflammability has the potential to achieve this dual function.This study proposed an encapsulated inorganic phase change material(EPCM)with a heat transfer enhancement for battery systems,where Na_(2)HPO_(4)·12H_(2)O was used as the core PCM encapsulated by silica and the additive of carbon nanotube(CNT)was applied to enhance the thermal conductivity.The microstructure and thermal properties of the EPCM/CNT were analyzed by a series of characterization tests.Two different incorporating methods of CNT were compared and the proper CNT adding amount was also studied.After preparation,the battery thermal management performance and TR propagation mitigation effects of EPCM/CNT were further investigated on the battery modules.The experimental results of thermal management tests showed that EPCM/CNT not only slowed down the temperature rising of the module but also improved the temperature uniformity during normal operation.The peak battery temperature decreased from 76℃to 61.2℃at 2 C discharge rate and the temperature difference was controlled below 3℃.Moreover,the results of TR propagation tests demonstrated that nonflammable EPCM/CNT with good heat absorption could work as a TR barrier,which exhibited effective mitigation on TR and TR propagation.The trigger time of three cells was successfully delayed by 129,474 and 551 s,respectively and the propagation intervals were greatly extended as well.

Smart materials for safe lithium-ion batteries against thermal runaway

In recent years,the new energy storage system,such as lithium ion batteries(LIBs),has attracted much attention.In order to meet the demand of industrial progress for longer cycle life,higher energy density and cost efficiency,a quantity of research has been conducted on the commercial application of LIBs.However,it is difficult to achieve satisfying safety and cycling performance simultaneously.There may be thermal runaway(TR),external impact,overcharge and overdischarge in the process of battery abuse,which makes the safety problem of LIBs more prominent.In this review,we summarize recent progress in the smart safety materials design towards the goal of preventing TR of LIBs reversibly from different abuse conditions.Benefiting from smart responsive materials and novel structural design,the safety of LIBs can be improved a lot.We expect to provide a comprehensive reference for the development of smart and safe lithium-based battery materials.

PARAMETRIC SENSITIVITY AND RUNAWAY IN FIXED BED REACTORS

This paper presents a comprehensive treatment of the parametric sensitivity and runaway in fixed bed reactors with one dimensional pseudo homogeneous dispersion model (ODDM). In this case, we find the existence of multiplicity and determine the runaway criterion through the critical isodisper sion curve. The calculated results indicate when the axial dispersion is relatively small, the impact of the axial dispersion on the parametric sensitivity may be neglected; but when the axial dispersion is large, this impact must be considered.

Overcharge-to-thermal-runaway behavior and safety assessment of commercial lithium-ion cells with different cathode materials:A comparison study

In this paper,overcharge behaviors and thermal runaway(TR)features of large format lithium-ion(Liion)cells with different cathode materials(LiFePO4(LFP),Li[Ni_(1/3)Co_(1/3)Mn_(1/3)]O_(2)(NCM111),Li[Ni_(0.6)Co_(0.2)Mn_(0.2)]O_(2)(NCM622)and Li[Ni_(0.8)Co_(0.1)Mn_(0.1)]O_(2)(NCM811))were investigated.The results showed that,under the same overcharge condition,the TR of LFP Li-ion cell occurred earlier compared with the NCM Li-ion cells,indicating its poor overcharge tolerance and high TR risk.However,when TR occurred,LFP Li-ion cell exhibited lower maximum temperature and mild TR response.All NCM Liion cells caught fire or exploded during TR,while the LFP Li-ion cell only released a large amount of smoke without fire.According to the overcharge behaviors and TR features,a safety assessment score system was proposed to evaluate the safety of the cells.In short,NCM Li-ion cells have better performance in energy density and overcharge tolerance(or low TR risk),while LFP Li-ion cell showed less severe response to overcharging(or less TR hazards).For NCM Li-ion cells,as the ratio of nickel in cathode material increases,the thermal stability of the cathode materials becomes poorer,and the TR hazards increase.Such a comparison study on large format Li-ion cells with different cathode materials can provide deeper insights into the overcharge behaviors and TR features,and provide guidance for engineers to reasonably choose battery materials in automotive applications.

Escape from the Besieged Fortress——An Analysis of Alice Munro's "Runaway"

Alice Munro is one of the famous Canadian writers and is renowned above all for the astonishing subtlety of her short stories.Her theme has often been the dilemmas of the female coming to terms with family, friends in a small town. This paper attempts to make a brief introduction about the stories of Alice Munro's Runaway and explores the protagonist's choices in the dilemma situation, and then exposes the cruelty of reality is that they cannot get rid of the ineluctable reality of life. Escape is only a temporary action which cannot save them from endless triviality of life. What they should do is not to escape from life, but to adapt to the reality of life.

Influences of multi factors on thermal runaway induced by overcharging of lithium-ion battery

Thermal runaway caused by overcharging results in catastrophic disasters. The influences of charging rate, ambient temperature and aging on thermal runaway caused by overcharging are studied qualitatively and quantitatively in this manuscript. The results of overcharging tests indicate that high charging rate and ambient temperature increase thermal runaway risk. Aging in 40 ℃ decreases thermal runaway risk. The risk increase of battery with high overcharging rate and in high ambient temperature is due to fast lithium plating reaction and accelerated SEI decomposition, respectively. The risk decrease of aged battery is due to the occurrence of SEI before overcharging tests. SEI suppresses the side reactions between lithium plating and electrolyte. The results of orthogonal tests indicate that the rank of effect is: discharging rate > ambient temperature > aging. The heat generation is calculated based on the results of overcharging tests. The calculation results indicate that heat generated by side reactions contributes more to the total heat generation. Although thermal runaway does not occur during overcharging with low current, the heat dissipation of the lithium-ion battery is the most and deserves focus. The results are important to the design of battery management system and thermal management system to prevent thermal runaway induced by overcharging in total lifespan of battery.

Venting Design for Di-tert-butyl Peroxide Runaway Reaction Based on Accelerating Rate Calorimeter Test

In order to design the relief system size of di-tert-butyl peroxide(DTBP) storage tanks,the runaway re-action of DTBP was simulated by accelerating rate calorimeter(ARC).The results indicated that under adiabatic conditions the initial exothermic temperature was 102.6 ℃,the maximum self-heating rate was 3.095×107 ℃·min-1,the maximum self-heating temperature was 375.9 ℃,and the pressure produced by unit mass was 4.512 MPa·g-1.Judged by ARC test,the emergency relief system for DTBP was a hybrid system.Based on Design Institute for Emergency Relief System(DIERS) method,the releasing mass flow rate W was determined by Leung methods,and the mass velocity G was calculated by two modified Omega methods.The two relief sizes calculated by monograph Omega method and arithmetic Omega method are close,with only 0.63% relative error.The monograph Omega method is more convenient to apply.

Study about thermal runaway behavior of high specific energy density Li-ion batteries in a low state of charge

Lithium-ion batteries are widely used in electric vehicles and electronics, and their thermal safety receives widespread attention from consumers. In our study, thermal runaway testing was conducted on the thermal stability of commercial lithium-ion batteries, and the internal structure of the battery was analyzed with an in-depth focus on the key factors of the thermal runaway. Through the study of the structure and thermal stability of the cathode, anode, and separator, the results showed that the phase transition reaction of the separator was the key factor affecting the thermal runaway of the battery for the condition of a low state of charge.

Thermal runaway propagation behavior of the Cell-to-Pack battery system

Structurally compact battery packs significantly improve the driving range of electric vehicles.Technologies like Cell-to-Pack increase energy density by 15%-20%.However,the safety implications of multiple tightly-packed battery cells still require in-depth research.This paper studies thermal runaway propagation behavior in a Cell-to-Pack system and assesses propagation speed relative to other systems.The investigation includes temperature response,extent of battery damage,pack structure deformation,chemical analysis of debris,and other considerations.Results suggest three typical patterns for the thermal runaway propagation process:ordered,disordered,and synchronous.The synchronous propagation pattern displayed the most severe damage,indicating energy release is the largest under the synchronous pattern.This study identifies battery deformation patterns,chemical characteristics of debris,and other observed factors that can both be applied to identify the cause of thermal runaway during accident investigations and help promote safer designs of large battery packs used in large-scale electric energy storage systems.

Investigation of fast pitch angle scattering of runaway electrons in the EAST tokamak

This paper reports that an experimental investigation of fast pitch angle scattering （FPAS） of runaway electrons in the EAST tokamak has been performed. From the newly developed infrared detector （HgCdTe） diagnostic system, the infrared synchrotron radiation emitted by relativistic electrons can be obtained as a function of time. The FPAS is analysed by means of the infrared detector diagnostic system and the other correlative diagnostic systems （including electron-cyclotron emission, hard x-ray, neutrons）. It is found that the intensity of infrared synchrotron radiation and the electron-cyclotron emission signal increase rapidly at the time of FPAS because of the fast increase of pitch angle and the perpendicular velocity of the energetic runaway electrons. The Parail and Pogutse instability is a possible mechanism for the FPAS.

Overview of runaway current suppression and dissipation on J-TEXT tokamak

The main works on disruption mitigation including suppression and mitigation of runaway current on the J-TEXT tokamak are summarized in this paper.Two strategies for the mitigation of runaway electron(RE) beams are applied in experiments.The first strategy enables the REs to be completely suppressed by means of supersonic molecular beam injection and resonant magnetic perturbation which can enhance RE loss,magnetic energy transfer which can reduce the electric field,and secondary massive gas injection(MGI) which can increase the collisional damping.For the second strategy,the runaway current is allowed to form but should be dissipated or soft landed within tolerance.It is observed that the runaway current can be significantly dissipated by MGI,and the dissipation rate increases with the injected impurity particle number and eventually stabilizes at 28 MA s^(-1).The dissipation rate of the runaway current can be up to 3 MA s^(-1)by ohmic field.Shattered pellet injection has been chosen as the main disruption mitigation method,which has the capability of injecting material deeper into the plasma for higher density assimilation when compared to MGI.Moreover,simulation works show that the RE seeds in the plasma are strongly influenced under different phases and sizes of 2/1 mode locked islands during thermal quench.The robust runaway suppression and runaway current dissipation provide an important insight on the disruption mitigation for future large tokamaks.

Thermal Runaway of Lithium-Ion Batteries Employing Flame-Retardant Fluorinated Electrolytes

Fluorinated electrolytes possess good antioxidant capacity that provides high compatibility to high-voltage cathode and flame retardance;thus,they are considered as a promising solution for advanced lithium-ion batteries carrying both high-energy density and high safety.Moreover,the fluorinated electrolytes are widely used to form stable electrolyte interphase,due to their chemical reactivity with lithiated graphite or lithium.However,the influence of this reactivity on the thermal safety of batteries is seldom discussed.Herein,we demonstrate that the flame-retardant fluorinated electrolytes help to reduce the flammability,while the lithium-ion batteries with flame-retardant fluorinated electrolytes still undergo thermal runaway and disclose their different thermal runaway pathway from that of battery with conventional electrolyte.The reduction in fluorinated components(e.g.,LiPF 6 and fluoroethylene carbonate(FEC))by fully lithiated graphite accounts for a significant heat release during battery thermal runaway.The 13%of total heat is sufficient to trigger the chain reactions during battery thermal runaway.This study deepens the understanding of the thermal runaway mechanism of lithium-ion batteries employing flame-retardant fluorinated electrolytes,providing guidance on the concept of electrolyte design for safer lithium-ion batteries.

Study of runaway electron behaviour during electron cyclotron resonance heating in the HL-2A Tokamak

During the current flat-top phase of electron cyclotron resonance heating discharges in the HL-2A Tokamak, the behaviour of runaway electrons has been studied by means of hard x-ray detectors and neutron diagnostics. During electron cyclotron resonance heating, it can be found that both hard x-ray radiation intensity and neutron emission flux fall rapidly to a very low level, which suggests that runaway electrons have been suppressed by electron cyclotron resonance heating. From the set of discharges studied in the present experiments, it has also been observed that the efficiency of runaway suppression by electron cyclotron resonance heating was apparently affected by two factors： electroh cyclotron resonance heating power and duration. These results have been analysed by using a test particle model. The decrease of the toroidal electric field due to electron cyclotron resonance heating results in a rapid fall in the runaway electron energy that may lead to a suppression of runaway electrons. During electron cyclotron resonance heating with different powers and durations, the runaway electrons will experience different slowing down processes. These different decay processes are the major cause for influencing the efficiency of runaway suppression. This result is related to the safe operation of the Tokamak and may bring an effective control of runaway electrons.

Runaway Electron Suppression by ECRH and RMP in KSTAR

We have observed reduction of the runaway electron synchrotron radiation, hard X-ray （HXR） intensity, and HXR energy after applying 110 GHz 2nd harmonic electron cyclotron resonant heating （ECRH） during runaway electron （RE） discharges at low density with startup runaway electrons. However, we did not see a significant reduction of X-rays from 170 GHz 2nd harmonic ECRH at a higher field. A recently installed IR TV camera was used to observe the forward cone of synchrotron radiation from high energy REs in KSTAR. We have observed changes to the synchrotron images and reduction of the HXR by application of resonant magnetic perturbations （RMP） from in-vessel control coils （IVCC） installed inside KSTAR in the n----1 configuration.

Runaway Electrons Pre-ionized Diffuse Discharges in SF6, Air, Argon and Nitrogen

The formation of runaway electron pre-ionized diffuse discharges at the pressures 0.05-0.7 MPa of in air, argon, nitrogen, and SF6 in an inhomogeneous electric field was investigated. Dynamics of intensity of the discharge plasma radiation from the different discharge gap regions in the gas pressure range （0.05-0.7 MPa） was established. It was shown that, the breakdown is occurred owing to the ionization wave, which starts from the electrode with small radius of curvature at both polarity of high voltage pulses. It is seen that formation of bright spots on the fiat electrode at the negative polarity of the electrode with small radius of curvature are observed during the changing of the discharge current polarity. It was shown that, at positive polarity of electrode with a small radius of curvature, the bright spots on the flat electrode arise due to the participation of the dynamic displacement current in the gap conductance.

Synchrotron radiation intensity and energy of runaway electrons in EAST tokamak

A detailed analysis of the synchrotron radiation intensity and energy of runaway electrons is presented for the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak（EAST）. In order to make the energy of the calculated runaway electrons more accurate, we take the Shafranov shift into account. The results of the analysis show that the synchrotron radiation intensity and energy of runaway electrons did not reach the maximum at the same time. The energy of the runaway electrons reached the maximum first, and then the synchrotron radiation intensity of the runaway electrons reached the maximum.We also analyze the runaway electrons density, and find that the density of runaway electrons continuously increased. For this reason, although the energy of the runaway electrons dropped but the synchrotron radiation intensity of the runaway electrons would continue rising for a while.

Inherently safer reactors and procedures to prevent reaction runaway

Reaction runaway has longtime been an issue in chemical industry as it often leads to severe accidents if not controlled and inhibited properly.Herein we have reviewed several key considerations and procedures to prevent such phenomena,including inherently safer reactor design,thermal risk assessment and early warning detection of runaway,and pointed out that the basic principle underlying is necessary heat management and construction of resilient processes.For inherently safer reactor design,important factors such as heat removal,heat capacitance,flow behaviors and explosive behaviors have been investigated.The survey shows that heat exchanger(HEX) reactor and microreactor outperform traditional reactors.Meanwhile,we have looked into the effect of thermal risk ranking and safety operation region determining for thermal risk assessment,and the influence of runaway criteria and construction methods for early detection of reaction runaway as well.It shows that thermal risk assessment plays a key role on process design,and early warning detection system(EWDS) is preferable on prevention of reaction runaway.In the end,perspectives regarding inherently safer designs with the measures discussed above have been provided.