An electrochemical-thermal coupled overcharge-to-thermal-runaway model for lithium ion battery

This paper presents an electrochemical-thermal coupled overcharge-to-thermal-runaway (TR) model to predict the highly interactive electrochemical and thermal behaviors of lithium ion battery under the overcharge conditions. In this model, the battery voltage equals the difference between the cathode potential and the anode potential, whereas the temperature is predicted by modeling the combined heat generations, including joule heat, thermal runaway reactions and internal short circuit. The model can fit well with the adiabatic overcharge tests results at 0.33C, 0.5C and 1C, indicating a good capture of the overcharge-to-TR mechanism. The modeling analysis based on the validated model helps to quantify the heat generation rates of each heat sources during the overcharge-to-TR process. And the two thermal runaway reactions including the electrolyte oxidation reaction and the reaction between deposited lithium and electrolyte are found to contribute most to the heat generations during the overcharge process. Further modeling analysis on the critical parameters is performed to find possible solutions for the overcharge problem of lithium ion battery. The result shows that increasing the oxidation potential of the electrolyte, and increasing the onset temperature of thermal runaway are the two effective ways to improve the overcharge performance of lithium ion battery.