Study on the effect of spacing on thermal runaway propagation for lithium-ion batteries

In the open and closed space environments, the influence of spacing on battery pack thermal runaway propagation is studied. The mechanism of thermal runaway propagation for the lithium-ion battery pack is analyzed. The experimental results show that when the state of charge (SOC) of the battery is 100%, and the spacing is greater than 2 mm in the horizontal direction and 8 mm in the vertical arrangement, battery pack thermal runaway propagation hardly occurs in an open environment. In a closed environment, there is less chance of uncontrolled heat transmission in batteries when the rate of increase in the battery temperature is less than 0.66 °C s⁻¹. When the horizontal spacing is more than 4 mm or the vertical spacing of the battery is more than 8 mm in a closed environment, thermal runaway propagation cannot occur in the batteries. The research results provide some reference for the arrangement of lithium-ion battery packs in transportation and storage.