Technology and engineering services provider Williams Advanced Engineering (WAE) is partnering with Imperial College London to develop a multiphase multiphysics model of battery failure via thermal runaway. Thermal runaway, as WAE explains in its press release announcing the partnership, is a self-sustaining cascade of exothermic reactions that produce large volumes of gas which can cause batteries to fail and the potential for safety issues.
According to WAE, the model under development will consider gas dynamics and its interactions with electrochemical and thermal behaviors. The researchers' goal is to increase understanding of how thermal runaway starts and moves through a battery to aid the design of methods to counteract it.
Better understanding of thermal runaway and how it can be mitigated will help to improve the safety of applications in which batteries are integrated, such as electric vehicles. WAE says the model will not only aid creation of safer batteries but also speed up the process for doing so by reducing the amount of iterations and physical tests typically conducted.
WAE says it will bring to the project test data on thermal runaway developed through various R&D projects over the years. Its battery team will also provide technical knowledge and industrial experience on battery safety designs, the company says in its press release.
"We are confident that the proposed study will bring tangible economic and environmental benefits," said Rob Millar, head of Electrification, Williams Advanced Engineering, in the company's press release.
Dr. Huizhi Wang of Imperial College London, who is leading the project, said, "Understanding and modeling thermal runaway plays a crucial role in guiding the development of safer batteries but remains challenging due to the complexity of the process. We are excited to be working with Williams Advanced Engineering on this research project to address the key knowledge gaps in battery safety modeling."
