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Automotive Engineering ›› 2022, Vol. 44 ›› Issue (8): 1199-1211.doi: 10.19562/j.chinasae.qcgc.2022.08.009

Special Issue: 新能源汽车技术-动力电池&燃料电池2022年

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Analysis on Typical Modes of Thermal Runaway in Power Battery Pack with Uniformly Distributed Modules

Jiqing Chen,Haolan Xian,Fengchong Lan()   

  1. 1.School of Mechanical and Automotive Engineering,South China University of Technology,Guangzhou  510641
    2.South China University of Technology,Guangdong Provincial Automobile Engineering Key Laboratory,Guangzhou  510641
  • Received:2022-01-27 Revised:2022-03-18 Online:2022-08-25 Published:2022-08-25
  • Contact: Fengchong Lan E-mail:fclan@scut.edu.cn

Abstract:

According to the structure of the widely used power battery pack with uniformly distributed modules, a thermal runaway propagation test platform for uniformly distributed modules is built, and the thermal runaway propagation test is carried out to analyze the thermal runaway propagation behavior characteristics and the law of heat flow transfer. The combination of the real cases of electric vehicle fire accident caused by the thermal runaway of power battery pack and the result of thermal runaway propagation test for the uniformly distributed battery modules verifies the propagation mode of thermal runaway for the battery pack. The results show that there are two propagation modes of thermal runaway for the battery pack: the thermal runaway propagation within the module and the thermal runaway propagation between different modules; The thermal runaway time interval within the module 1, where the thermal runaway occurs first, is 44, 34, 31 s respectively and that within the module 2, whose thermal runaway is caused by the effects of module 1, is significantly shortened, being 17, 15, 11 s respectively, with the thermal runaway time interval within the module getting smaller and smaller, the heat released by the thermal runaway of the battery cell that triggers the thermal runaway of the adjacent battery cells gradually reduces with the propagation of thermal runaway, and there exists an apparent time lag in the propagation of thermal runaway between modules, usually reaching the order of several minutes. There are two distinguish initial temperature of thermal runaway for the battery cell under thermal abuse conditions: the thermal runaway trigger temperature and the thermal runaway environment trigger temperature. The wall heat radiation and air heat conduction between modules increase the thermal runaway propagation speed in adjacent module, in which the maximum heat transferred by wall heat radiation can reach 95.18 kJ, while the maximum heat transferred by air heat conduction is 3.58 kJ, indicating the main way of heat transfer between modules being wall heat radiation. In order to prevent the thermal runaway from propagation within module, the protection measures for the propagation of thermal runaway between modules should be strengthened.

Key words: power battery thermal runaway, uniformly distributed modules, thermal runaway propagation between modules, electric vehicle fire accident