Measurement of Heat Release Rate, Aerosol, and Gas Products During Lithium-Ion Battery Thermal Runaway in Devices

Lithium-ion batteries power a large and increasing number and variety of electronic devices, hand tools, and larger machinery, including automobiles, inevitably finding use in crewed space missions. Under abusive use conditions or due to manufacturing defects, these batteries can experience thermal runaway, where the battery electrolyte reacts, generating heat, aerosol, toxic gas products, and potentially flames, posing a threat to the enclosed, recycled atmosphere of a space vehicle. Beginning an effort to quantify the effects of thermal runaway in a crewed vehicle or habitat, the authors built an enclosure and flow measurement system, capturing products to measure heat release rate, aerosol, and gas products evolving from thermal runaway. The scale of these current and future tests ranges from individual battery cells to laptop battery packs and full-sized laptop computers. An initial series of tests examined the burning rate of ethanol pool fires of two different sizes, simulating an individual battery cell fire and a battery pack fire, respectively. These results showed good agreement in heat release rate in comparison to a heat of combustion analysis, validating the apparatus. A second series of tests examined the thermal runaway of the two 2500 mAh battery cell types. These results quantified the heat release rate and gas products produced during the thermal runaway of the tested battery cells. It also showed different responses between different batteries in terms of aerosol production and heat release, showing the need to test specific battery components in terms of heat and products produced.