Methodology for the Analysis of Thermal Runaway in Electric Vehicle Batteries

Abstract

This paper describes a modelling technique to rapidly and efficiently predict the thermal behavior of an electric vehicle battery pack focusing on the likelihood of thermal runaway. The fundamental model of the cell is based on 1D and 2D lumped thermal models for individual cell, sub-pack and full pack simulations. The models include dynamic self-heating effects, the impact of state-of-charge and current, and thermal behavior of the cells and the packaging. A methodology is presented for highly efficient electro-thermal modeling of EV battery packs and thermal runaway risks to be analyzed. The battery type to be considered in this work is cylindrical cells, of the 18650 geometry, although the technique applies to any cylindrical cell type, and could easily be adapted to other cells types such as pouch or prismatic.