High-Frequency Induction Heating: A Breakthrough for Reliable Thermal Runaway Triggering in Battery Safety Testing

This study presents a breakthrough in battery safety testing by developing high-frequency induction heating as a rapid, reliable, and standardized method for triggering thermal runaway (TR) in lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). Addressing the limitations of conventional techniques (e.g., nail penetration, external heating), this approach leverages the skin effect and magnetic shielding to achieve localized heating power density (>242.5 W/cm2) with millisecond precision, inducing TR across multiple commercial formats (prismatic, pouch, cylindrical) while consuming <1% of cell capacity. Experimental and multiphysics simulations demonstrate its exceptional repeatability, revealing localized current densities up to 4.0 × 105 A/cm2 and TR initiation within seconds. This layer-by-layer heating mechanism ensures minimal collateral damage, validated in high-safety lithium iron phosphate (LFP) and NMC cells, and addresses critical gaps in testing batteries (e.g., solid-state, sodium-ion). As global regulations (GB 38031, IEC 62619) evolve, this work proposes induction heating as a standardized solution, offering 100% TR initiation success and precise propagation control.