Non-dimensional analysis of the criticality of Li-ion battery thermal runaway behavior

Lithium-ion batteries are the most popular used portable energy storage technology due to the relatively high energy density. While thermal instability induced safety concerns impede the pace of developing large scale applications, the practical applications have no tolerance for the catastrophic failure. To learn more about the characteristics of battery failure, the criticality of battery thermal runaway is studied in this paper. Semenov and Thomas models are employed to analyze the criticality of battery thermal runaway in uniform and nonuniform temperature distribution situations. In order to improve accuracy of prediction, the critical parameters of overall reaction are taken as a weighted average of four exothermic reactions and the critical criteria are revised by the consumption of reactants. Results from revised model are consistence with oven model. According to the revised thermal abuse models, the critical criterion (ψ_cr,δ_cr) and critical temperature distribution (θ_cr) are analyzed in different composite materials, convective heat transfer coefficients and cell deformations. Results give the variation of critical criteria and critical temperature with these factors.