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Lithium batteries have a tendency to fail violently under adverse conditions leading to the rapid venting of gas. Overcharge, thermal heating, and a combination of the two conditions are applied here to investigate the gas venting process. A test chamber has been constructed with data recordings including chamber pressure and temperature, battery voltage, current, and surface temperature as functions of time throughout the charging and failure processes. High-speed imaging and schlieren flow visualization are used to visualize the gas venting process. A direct comparison between lithium iron phosphate based K2 26650 and lithium nickel manganese cobalt oxide LG 18650 cells is made through a test series of the three failure methods. Failure under thermal, overcharge, and thermal-overcharge conditions are generally similar in terms of the gas venting process, but are observed to have increasingly energetic failures. The thermal-overcharge abuse condition demonstrates an ability to reconnect via internal short circuit even after an initial electrical failure seen as the refusal to accept charge. This reconnection is associated with a secondary, more energetic failure which can produce weak shock pressure waves.

Battery energy storage is being installed behind-the-meter to reduce electrical bills while improving power system efficiency and resiliency. This paper demonstrates the development and application of an advanced optimal control method for battery energy storage systems to maximize these benefits. We combine methods for accurately modeling the state-of-charge, temperature, and state-of-health of lithium-ion battery cells into a model predictive controller to optimally schedule charge/discharge, air-conditioning, and forced air convection power to shift a electric customer's consumption and hence reduce their electric bill. While linear state-of-health models produce linear relationships between battery usage and degradation, a non-linear, stress-factor model accounts for the compounding improvements in lifetime that can be achieved by reducing several stress factors at once. Applying this controller to a simulated system shows significant benefits from cooling-in-the-loop control and that relatively small sacrifices in bill reduction performance can yield large increases in battery life. This trade-off function is highly dependent on the battery's degradation mechanisms and what model is used to represent them.

Lithium ion batteries have a well-documented tendency to fail energetically under various abuse conditions. These conditions frequently result in decomposition of the electrochemical components within the battery resulting in gas generation and increased internal pressure which can lead to an explosive case rupture. The 18650 format cell incorporates a vent mechanism located within a crimped cap to relieve pressure and mitigate the risk of case rupture. Cell venting, however, introduces additional safety concerns associated with the flow of flammable gases and liquid electrolyte into the environment. Experiments to quantify key parameters are performed to elucidate the external dynamics of battery venting. A first experiment measures the vent burst pressure. Burst vent caps are then tested with a second experimental fixture to measure vent opening area and discharge coefficient during choked-flow venting, which occurs during battery failure. Vent opening area and discharge coefficient are calculated from stagnation temperature, stagnation pressure, and static pressure measurements along with compressible-isentropic flow equations and conservation of mass. Commercially sourced vent caps are used with repeated tests run to quantify repeatability and variability. Validation experiments confirmed accuracy of opening area and discharge coefficient measurement. Further, trials conducted on vent caps from two sources demonstrate the potential for variation between manufacturers.

The single largest barrier to adoption of electrochemical storage in the grid is often stated to be the value of a battery over the life of the system. To ensure long-term system safety and reliability, batteries must be selected based on application specific requirements and performance characteristics. Our approach to addressing the uncertainty in the performance and cycle life of commercially viable lithium ion batteries for grid storage has been to design studies with multiple chemistries, and conduct long term life cycle evaluations with systematically varied cycling conditions. Namely, we initiated a large-scale, multi-year cycling study of commercial LiFePO4/LFP, LiNixCoyAl1-x-y­O2/NCA, and LiNixMnyCo1-x-yO2/NMC cells. This study looks at chemistry specific influences on efficiency and cycle life under variables that include discharge rate, depth of discharge (DoD) and temperature, and is complemented by a calendar aging study. The source of differences in aging behavior was investigated through electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and differential capacity analysis. We compare results to literature to identify the degree to which variations may be expected with manufacturer and version, as products can see manufacturing changes year to year. Understanding variations is critical for lifetime assessment and economic evaluation that is meaningful for installed systems. We further look at how these best-case scenario results from single cell studies may be used as a baseline in moving toward understanding aging in module and system configurations. The overarching goal is to begin to effectively understand laboratory cell studies in a context applicable to grid storage systems. Sandia National Laboratories is a multi-mission laboratory managed and operated by National Technology & Engineering Solutions of Sandia, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Honeywell International Inc., for the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration under contract DE-NA0003525.

Background-oriented schlieren is a method of visualizing refractive disturbances by comparing digital images with and without a refractive disturbance distorting a background pattern. Traditionally, backgrounds consist of random distributions of high-contrast color transitions or speckle patterns. To image a refractive disturbance, a digital image correlation algorithm is used to identify the location and magnitude of apparent pixel shifts in the background pattern between the two images. Here, a novel method of using color gradient backgrounds is explored as an alternative that eliminates the need to perform a complex image correlation between the digital images. A simple image subtraction can be used instead to identify the location, magnitude, and direction of the image distortions. Gradient backgrounds are demonstrated to provide quantitative data only limited by the camera’s pixel resolution, whereas speckle backgrounds limit resolution to the size of the random pattern features and image correlation window size. Quantitative measurement of density in a thermal boundary layer is presented. Two-dimensional gradient backgrounds using multiple colors are demonstrated to allow measurement of two-dimensional refractions. A computer screen is used as the background, which allows for rapid modification of the gradient to tune sensitivity for a particular application.

Liquid coiling occurs as a viscous fluid flows into a stagnant reservoir causing a localized accumulation of settling material, which coils into a stack as it accumulates. These coiling flows are broadly characterized into three primary coiling regimes of viscous, gravitational, or inertial coiling, based on the velocity of the falling fluid, the height of the fall, the radius of the fluid rope, the stack height, and the fluid properties including viscosity. A computer-controlled flow delivery apparatus was developed here to produce precisely controlled flow conditions to study steady and transitional coiling regimes with independently varied parameters. Data were recorded using high-speed digital video cameras and a purpose-built digital image processing routine to extract rope and stack dimensions as well as time-resolved coiling frequency. The precision of the setup and data analysis methods allowed a detailed study of the transition between gravitational and inertial flow regimes. The results show a smooth transition between the regimes, with no evidence of the inertial-gravitational regime. Unsteady coiling was able to be momentarily produced by applying a perturbation to the system, but the unstable regime quickly decayed to either the base inertial or gravitational regime.