Thermal runaway features of large format prismatic lithium ion battery using extended volume accelerating rate calorimetry

•Thermal runaway behavior of a 25 Ah prismatic Li-ion battery is evaluated using ARC.•When thermal runaway happens, the temperature inside the battery is 870 °C or so.•When thermal runaway happens, the temperature difference within the battery is 520 °C.•The internal resistance is got by pulse current charging during thermal runaway test.•The sharp drop of voltage is 15–40 s sooner than the sudden rise of temperature.

In this paper, the thermal runaway features of a 25 Ah large format prismatic lithium ion battery with Li(NixCoyMnz)O2 (NCM) cathode are evaluated using the extended volume-accelerating rate calorimetry (EV-ARC). 4 thermocouples are set at different positions of the battery. The temperature inside the battery is 870 °C or so, much higher than that outside the battery. The temperature difference is calculated from the recorded data. The temperature difference within the battery stays lower than 1 °C for 97% of the test period, while it rises to its highest, approximately 520 °C, when thermal runaway happens. The voltage of the battery is also measured during the test. It takes 15–40 s from the sharp drop of voltage to the instantaneous rise of temperature. Such a time interval is beneficial for early warning of the thermal runaway. Using a pulse charge/discharge profile, the internal resistance is derived from the quotient of the pulse voltage and the current during the ARC test. The internal resistance of the battery increases slowly from 20 mΩ to 60 mΩ before thermal runaway, while it rises to 370 mΩ when thermal runaway happens indicating the loss of the integrity of the separator or the battery swell.