Numerical study on the fire and its propagation of large capacity lithium-ion batteries under storage

A large amount of storage may cause large-scale fire or explosion accidents due to the potential fire risk of lithium-ion batteries, which poses a great threat to the safety of personnel and property. In this study, the fire model of an individual cell is established according to the experimental data and the relevant parameters of thermal runaway simulation of large capacity battery are determined. The battery pack model is established according to the real setting of a warehouse. The fire characteristics of the battery pack spreading around in the warehouse environment are studied. The results show that the fire of lithium-ion batteries is preferentially diffused to the upper battery pack in the warehouse environment, and spread to the upper battery pack 19 s after the initial battery thermal runaway. The fire propagation of the horizontal battery pack is greatly affected by the distance. The farther the battery string is from the thermal runaway battery, the later the fire propagation battery string occurs. Furthermore, the role and effect of battery pack spacing, fire warning and automatic sprinkler system in fire are provided, so as to carry out better research on the storage safety of lithium-ion battery warehouses.