Virtual prediction of internal short circuit in a pouch battery due to mechanical abuse

Authors

C. Stoker, Y. Hahn, P. Specker, Z. Gao - Dassault Systems

Summary

Electric vehicles have become an important part of today’s automotive industry. The lithium-ion battery is widely used, but it is also challenged to improve its capacity and safety due to market demand. Battery abuse in EVs must be accounted for, such as the mechanical damage caused by vehicle collision. Short circuit phenomena in Li-ion batteries can lead to fire and catastrophic damage of the battery itself and of the enclosure structure. Therefore, it is of great importance to study these phenomena in order to improve EV safety. Accurate numerical simulation models can help predict the battery behavior under these mechanical loads.

This work focuses on the simulation with Abaqus FEA software of the short circuit in a pouch battery due to mechanical damage during an indentation test. The mechanical failure of the separator results in contact between the anode and the cathode - an internal short circuit occurs.

In order to investigate the methodology to model the short circuit, two approaches are proposed, which are already available in a commercial FEA software…..