Investigation of cooling control effect of fine water mist on lithium-ion battery thermal runaway

ABSTRACT

The lithium-ion battery (LIB) thermal runaway (TR) has been a major safety problem, and effective countermeasure to suppress the TR becomes indispensable. Owing to the outstanding cooling capacity, the water mist presents efficient suppression effect on TR, but the comprehensive understanding on the cooling mechanisms remains unclear. In this work, the fine water mist (FWM) that is driven by the air flow has been applied to suppress the TR, and the cooling control processes under various thermal hazard conditions have been comprehensively analyzed. Results show that TR can be efficiently suppressed with the FWM applied before the critical temperature, which is identified as 252.5 ± 2.5°C. The average surface cooling rate increases from 1.04 to 1.22°Cs⁻¹ with the increasing flow rate, and the total heat dissipation maintains approximately at 2.10 kJ, once the flow rate exceeds 0.2 mLs⁻¹. It is identified that the most efficient cooling process can be obtained under the duration of 80 s. The influence of the flow rate and duration of the FWM on the cooling effect has been discussed to comprehensive reveal the control mechanism, and the excellent cooling control effect of the FWM flow has been verified.

KEYWORDS:

• Lithium-ion battery
• thermal runaway
• fine water mist cooling
• hazard control
• thermal management

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China [2021YFB2402003]; University Synergy Innovation Program of Anhui Province [GXXT-2020-079].