Thermal Modeling of the Electric Vehicle Fire Hazard Effects on Parking Building

Abstract

The world community is constantly and rapidly moving toward the search for alternative and ecologically clean energy sources, including for transport, and Russia’s war against Ukraine only intensified and accelerated such processes. This trend in transport is reflected in the spread of battery-powered electric vehicles (BEVs) with zero emission of harmful gases.

Electric cars are experiencing a rapid increase in numbers, accompanied by the emergence of lesser-known risks. Among these hazards are the occurrence of fires in electric vehicles, primarily caused by component failures, notably the widely prevalent lithium-ion batteries.

Fires of such cars have a different character compared to fires of vehicles powered by an internal combustion engine vehicle (ICEV). In this study, using the fire dynamics simulator developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, a BEV fire was simulated on the example of the Tesla Model S. For this, a description of the objects and their physical characteristics were carried out, the input parameters of the BEV and environmental parameters were set, and a mathematical model of the development dynamics of fire was formed. According to the modeling results, it was found that the minimum fire protection distance from a BEV to the wall of buildings of various functional purposes should be at least 3 m, provided that the free fire development time is 600 s.