Comparison and Analysis of Domestic and International Standards for Lithium-ion Batteries

Small-scale lithium-ion batteries are widely used as the primary power source for portable electronic devices, such as smartphones, laptops, and wearable electronics, and their application scope continues to expand. However, owing to their structural characteristics, fire incidents involving these batteries often exhibit thermal runaway accompanied by sudden flame jetting, fragmentation, and re-ignition, posing significant safety risks to users as well as to transportation and storage environments. Despite these risks, domestic and international safety and fire test standards for small-scale lithium-ion batteries differ in terms of their definitions, test objectives, ignition methods, and evaluation criteria, thus limiting the ability to consistently assess the same hazards. This study comparatively analyzes the test configurations, fire initiation methods, and evaluation parameters of representative standards for small-scale lithium-ion batteries. Based on this analysis, this study identifies the need for clearer definitions reflecting the battery characteristics, consideration of chemical composition, and explicit criteria for reignition assessment and proposes directions for improving domestic test standards.