Engineering safety analysis of EV Li-ion batteries for mini zing auto insurance losses

Abstract

Vehicle Electrification is a leading technology in transportation sector towards sustainability and green earth. One of the threats to this fast-growing energy revolution is the Li-ion batteries - especially the concerns related to the safety of these batteries due to the increasing trend of energy density. As a result, during crash accidents, the possibility of fire accidents and explosions are significantly higher. Of the many affected stakeholders due to this safety issue, the auto insurance industries are the notable ones, who in the case of an accident, can end with large insurance losses. Hence the motive of this thesis is to leverage numerical modeling techniques developed at the Impact and Crashworthiness Lab (ICL) at MIT on the deformation and failure of Li ion batteries subjected to mechanical abuse conditions, to address the challenges of the auto insurance industries. This work includes three key deliverables. Firstly, a qualitative risk analysis of failure modes at cell, module and battery pack level using FMEA to identify high risk failure modes. Secondly, to analyze one of the high-risk failure modes using numerical models. Thirdly, construction of the failure envelope at cell and module level to establish design guidelines on how much local deformation will a given battery can withstand before initiating an internal damage that can lead to short circuit. Potential areas of applying these approaches and more research works required in this direction have been discussed.