Development of a Safer Lithium-ion (Li-ion) Battery for Naval Aircraft Applications Through Thermal Management Design Navy STTR FY2014.A Sol No.: Navy STTR FY2014.A Topic No.: N14A-T006 Topic Title: Development of a Safer Lithium-ion (Li-ion) Battery for Naval Aircraft Applications Through Thermal Management Design Proposal No.: N14A-006-0272 Firm: Texas Research Institute Austin, Inc. 9063 Bee Caves Road Austin, Texas 78733-6201 Contact: Harry Perkinson Phone: (512) 263-2101 Web Site: www.tri-austin.com Abstract: Texas Research Institute Austin, Inc. (TRI/Austin) is developing a lithium-ion battery module that will manage individual cell thermal runaways in two ways. The active management path will be to monitor the internal temperature of the cell and remove the cell from the charging/discharging circuit if anode or cathode temperatures exceed specified temperatures. Removal from the charging/discharging circuit will trigger the flow of forced CO2 around the overheating cell to bring down the cell's internal temperature and to remove heat that would be conducted to other cells in the vicinity of the overheated cell. The second means of controlling the effects of a single cell thermal runaway will be to physically isolate the cells from one another using fire resistant, low thermal conductive composite materials that have been shown to produce low levels of fire and smoke and very low levels of toxic gases in the event of a fire. These two thermal management approaches will be integrated into a Battery Management Module that will allow use of Lithium-ion batteries in critical manned applications and when taken to the proposed technologies natural conclusion, will extend the life of the battery cells and improve the overall efficacy of Lithium-ion batteries. Benefits: Lithium-ion batteries hold the promise of significant specific energy; lots of energy coupled with low density. To be effective, the Li-ion batteries have to be able to be charged and discharged in a rapid manner. There has been hesitation to charge and discharge rapidly because of the threat of thermal runaway where the internal materials of the battery reach a temperature where they self propagate an exothermic reaction that can result in explosion and fire. Controlling the internal temperature of the individual cells can eliminate the threat of thermal runaway due to charging/discharging. Isolating the battery cells from each other with materials that can withstand the heat of a cell thermal runaway, hold up to the explosive force of a cell venting, and can function as a structural material in the day to day requirements of the batteries can minimize the potential for a single cell thermal runaway event from propagating to adjacent cells. Significant thermal management of Li-ion batteries will open a large number of critical, manned applications where the energy density of the Li-ion batteries would provide a significant pay-off. These applications exist in multiple forms of transportation including aviation, marine, and ground applications. Return