Identification of the cause of fire in new energy batteries

Why is a battery a fire hazard?

The combustion of batteries was usually accompanied by a large amount of heat release and the generation of toxic and harmful smoke, which often ignited surrounding combustible materials, causing the expansion of fire accidents and threatening human life safety.

Are lithium ion batteries a fire hazard?

Lithium-ion batteries themselves have a high risk of fire. Under the effect of external thermal sources, external compression, puncture, and short circuits, etc., an uncontrollable chain chemical reaction will occur inside the battery. This is the thermal runaway of lithium-ion batteries.

What happens if a battery is ignited with a flame?

It could be concluded that cell 5# was ignited with the impact of the flame of cell 6#. The flame impingement heated the edge of the battery, leading to a fast reaction at the edge and transferring to the center of the battery . Flame can increase the temperature of the battery and promote the heat transfer through the cell bodies.

Can a multilayer battery cause a fire?

Single-layer internal shorting in a multilayer battery is widely considered among the “worst-case” failure scenarios leading to thermal runaway and fires. We report a highly reproducible method to quantify the onset of fire/smoke during internal short circuiting (ISC) of lithium-ion batteries (LiBs) and anode-free batteries.

Can batteries catch fire and explode?

However, such batteries can catch fire and explode, potentially causing casualties and property damage. Here, we used a cone calorimeter to investigate the fire risk and assess the associated heat release rate (HRR).

Why do lithium ion batteries fire?

The main reason for lithium-ion battery fires was thermal runaway. If it was not controlled, thermal runaway may cause the battery to rupture and release toxic and highly flammable gases. If these flammable gases are ignited, they might cause a fire or explosion (Yuan et al., 2020).