Measurement of heat generation in a 40 Ah LiFePO4 prismatic battery using accelerating rate calorimetry

Accurate characterization of the heat generation behavior of a battery is crucial to a good design of its thermal management system. Concerning the thermal properties, much attention has been paid to small-sized batteries such as the 18650- or button-type and little information is available for large-capacity Li-ion prismatic cells under adiabatic conditions. In this work, heat generation of a commercial 40 Ah prismatic LiFePO4/C battery is evaluated using an accelerating rate calorimeter under an adiabatic condition. The battery cell is charged or discharged at an initial temperature from −12.5 to 40 °C and a current rate from 0.2C to 2C. The experiment results show that heat generated in the battery is highly dependent on its operating temperature, state of charge and current rate. Internal resistance and entropy coefficient of the battery cell are also determined by the Hybrid Pulse Power Characterization method and potentiometric method, respectively. Relationship between the internal resistance and the heat generation behavior is highlighted. Entropy coefficient and volumetric heat generation rate of the battery cell obtained in this work are compared with those of other Li-ion batteries reported in literature.