Evaluation of Internal Blast Overpressures in Test Rooms of Elcetric Vehicles Battery with Pressure Relief Vents

Secondary batteries used in electric vehicles have a potential risk of ignition and explosion. Various safety measures are being taken to prevent these risks. A numerical study was performed using a computational fluid dynamics code on the cases where pressure relief vents that can reduce the blast overpressures of batteries were installed in the through-compression test room, short-circuit drop test room, combustion test room, and immersion test room in facilities rleated to battery used in electric vehicles. This study was conducted using the weight of TNT equivalent to the energy release from the battery, where the the thermal runaway energy was set to 324,000 kJ for the capacity of the lithium-ion battery was 90 kWh and the state of charge (SOC) of the battery of 100%. The explosion energy of TNT (△H_TNT) generally has a range of 4,437 to 4,765 kJ/kg, and a value of 4,500 kJ/kg was thus used in this study. The dimensionless explosion efficiency coefficient was defined as 15% assuming the most unfavorable condition, and the TNT equivalent mass was calculated to be 11 kg. The internal explosion generated in a test room shows the very complex propagation behavior of blast waves. The shock wave generated after the explosion creates reflected shock waves on all inner surfaces. If the internally reflected shock waves are not effectively released to the outside, the overpressures inside are increased or maintained due to the continuous reflection and superposition from the inside for a long time. Blast simulations for internal explosion targeting four test rooms with pressure relief vents installed were herein conducted. It was found that that the maximum blast overpressure of 34.69 bar occurred on the rear wall of the immersion test room, and the smallest blast overpressure was calculated to be 3.58 bar on the side wall of the short-circuit drop test room.

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