Jennifer X Wen
University of Warwick, UK
Title: Electro-thermal modeling of lithium-ion battery packs from the safety perspective
Biography
Biography: Jennifer X Wen
Abstract
Owing to high energy density (~400Wh L-1) and long working life, lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) are widely used as power sources for portable electronic devices. They are also being increasingly used for electric vehicles (EVs), hybrid electric vehicles and power plants. However, recurrent fire incidents involving mobile phones, laptops, EVs and airplanes have raised increasing concern regarding the safety of LIB during storage, transportation and applications. LIBs may rupture, ignite or even explode when it is subjected to high-rate charging, poor ventilation, overcharging, overheating, short circuit or compression. In the above aggravating and abuse conditions, the materials within the battery react with each other, generating heat accompanied by unmoral electrical behavior. This presentation will report on the ongoing collaboration between Warwick FIRE at University of Warwick in the United Kingdom and the State Key Laboratory for Fire Science (SKLFS) in the University of Science and Technology, China. The collaborative project aims to develop a predictive tool, which will be generic across all LIB types for lithium-ion battery (LIB) thermal management from the safety perspective. Such a tool can aid the development of safer LIB cells and the optimization of LIB packs balancing performance and safety requirement. The presentation will outline the ongoing development at Warwick FIRE. It will also present snapshots of previous experimental data from SKLFS which will be used to provide the heat release rate in the model as well as the new measurements dedicated to support the model development work at Warwick FIRE, which is being carried out in SKLFS.