T3: Understanding the Science and Engineering of Electric Vehicle Battery Safety: A Tutorial
Instructor: Xuning FENG, Tsinghua University, China
Instructor: Jorge Varela Barreras, Imperial College London, UK
Abstract: This tutorial presents and discusses an introduction to EV battery safety technology, from both a theoretical and a practical perspective, focusing on proactive and reactive safety measures, and covering design, modelling, analysis, testing, or battery management system related issues. The tutorial is divided into two different parts. In the first part, we start from the basics, giving definitions and classifications around EVs, lithium-ion battery systems and management systems. Then we introduce the principles of safety philosophy and lay down the safety terminology. Next, we list and describe the different EV battery safety hazards, including explosive, flammable, oxidising, electrical, chemical, or heat hazards. In the second part, we review practical state-of-the-art approaches to improve safety, covering both proactive and reactive strategies to prevent and control the risks. For each hazard, we present and discuss practical safety measures at different levels (cell to vehicle and environment) and product life cycle stages.
Bio: Xuning FENG, Assistant Professor with School of Vehicle Mobility, Tsinghua University. Research interest include the battery safety for electric vehicle: characterization and modelling, and the battery system for electric vehicle: state estimation, thermal management, fault diagnosis. My research objectives are to solve engineering science problems that are pertinent to the application of new energy vehicles; to develop technologies to enable safe and efficient operation of electrochemical power sources; and to bridge the technology gaps between basic science of cell materials and commercial vehicle applications by developing methodologies and tools for battery characterization and management. My major contributions in engineering science include 1) conceived and developed technologies and methodologies for preventing thermal runaway of large-format lithium-ion traction batteries. 2) Pioneered in adiabatic thermal runaway test of large-format lithium-ion traction batteries, making the thermal runaway behavior measurable. 3) Established thermal runaway initiation and propagation models for the safety design of battery pack, making the thermal runaway behavior predictable. 4) Developed online diagnosis algorithm for battery degradation and internal-short-circuit, making the battery state-of-health online evaluable. 5) Implemented and validated most of the strategies and algorithms on industrial battery systems, demonstrated their effectiveness.
Bio: Jorge VARELA BARRERAS, Senior Researcher with Imperial College London, and Joint Chair of IEEE UK & Ireland Education Society. My current research interests are: electro-thermal battery modelling and characterization, advanced battery balancing systems, BMS and HV battery pack design and testing, battery diagnosis and prognosis methods, derating power strategies, proactive and reactive strategies for battery safety management, and novel EV and BESS architectures. My main research goal is to develop experimental and modelling tools that enable decarbonisation of the energy sector and transportation at a global scale and bring academic knowledge into industry and policymakers. So far, my major contributions in the field are: 1) a multi-awarded novel EV architecture based on fixed and swappable battery packs; 2) multi-awarded theoretical and practical developments of a new generation of active balancing systems, i.e. multi-objective smart and hybrid balancing systems; 3) pioneering works in BMS testing on hardware-in-the-loop simulators; 4) introduction of a number of simplified methods for electrical battery modelling; 5) development of EV battery safety training courses for emergency response services and industry; 6) guest editor of a special issue in EV battery safety in eTransportation by Elsevier.