Background

Abstract

Phase I of this project concluded with a detailed report describing a hazard assessment of Li-ion batteries [1]. The key finding from Phase I was that the warehouse setting was frequent throughout the entire lifecycle of Li-ion batteries. In the warehouse setting, several failure modes of Li-ion batteries were identified, including mechanical abuse, electrical abuse, thermal abuse from an external fire, and internal fault. However, internal fault is unlikely unless the Li-ion cells are being actively charged while being stored. Thus, this failure mode is not directly applicable within a large storage warehouse setting and is outside the scope of the current project. Based on this, an external fire source attacking the stored commodities was selected as the ignition source for this test series (see Sect. 4.1). Several mitigation strategies for these failure modes are commonly employed, including reducing the state of charge (SOC) of stored cells (i.e., 50 % SOC or less), placing cells in packaging designed to prevent mechanical and external short circuit damage, and the use of various fire protection systems.