Comparison of the Overcharge

Behaviours of Lithium-ion
Batteries Under Different Test
Conditions
Abstract

Overcharge is one of the most severe safety issues of lithium-ion batteries. In

this paper, the overcharge performance of a commercial lithium-ion battery is
evaluated under different test conditions, considering the effects of charging
current, restraining plate and heat dissipation. Charging current and heat
dissipation are found to have only minor influence on the battery overcharge
behaviors, while batteries with restraining plate and cuts on the pouches show
improved overcharge performance, as SOC and T both increase significantly.
Further analysis on T helps to identify the overcharge-induced thermal
runaway mechanism for the batteries with different configurations
 Overcharge test

A controlled current is applied

to the battery (e.g. 1/3C) up to
The pass/fail criteria are set as
a set of charge limits(e.g. 200%
“no fire”, “no explosion” and etc
SOC, 1.5 times the upper cut-off
voltage)

The overcharge test results are

The effects of different test
greatly influenced by the test
conditions on the battery
conditions, such as charging
overcharge behaviours are still
current, heat dissipation and
unclear
with/without restraining plate
 A 40 Ah lithium ion battery (240
mm×150 mm×14 mm) composed of two
pouch cells connected in parallel was
utilized in this study

The battery has Liy(NiCoMn)1/3O2-

Experimental LiyMn2O4 composite cathode and

graphite anode, and the separator is PE-
base separator with ceramic coating

Three kinds of battery configuration

were designed to study the effects of
restraining plate and pressure on
overcharge behaviors
 K type thermocouple No.1(TC1) was inserted
between Cell 1 and Cell 2 to monitor the internal
temperature of the battery during the tests, while
thermocouple No.2(TC2) was attached on the surface
of Cell 1 to record the surface temperature

The battery The internal temperature of the battery recorded by

configuration TC1 was used to evaluate the overcharge
performance in the following sections
A
High temperature insulation Kapton tape was
wrapped around the battery to keep compact contact
of the two pouch cells
The battery configuration B & C

The Kapton tape was replaced by two restraining plate made by epoxy material
in the battery configuration B, to investigate the effect of packing force on
overcharge performance

To study the effect of high-pressure gas, the batteries with the configuration C
were cut on the pouches to promptly release the gas generated during the
overcharge process, while the internal structures of the batteries remain intact
The overcharge tests No.1~5 were carried out
using extended volume accelerating
calorimetry (EV-ARC) by Thermal Hazard
Technology (THT) to provide the adiabatic
conditions

Tests No.6~7 were conducted at room

temperature without any temperature control
 The overcharge test results under different test
conditions are compared to investigate the
influences of charging current, restraining plate
and heat dissipation on the battery overcharge
performance

Two critical parameters, i.e. SOCTR and TTR, which

Results
denote the battery SOC and temperature when
TR occurs, respectively, are identified to
evaluate the overcharge performance of lithium-
ion batteries

Higher SOCTR and TTR indicate that the battery

can endure larger amount of overcharge
capacity and higher temperature before TR
 The internal resistance of the batteries charged
at different charging current show no difference
until the SOC reaches 1.4, and have same trends
during the whole overcharge process

Effect of
charging
current on The three batteries show similar temperature
profiles and run into TR at about 113o C

overcharge
behaviours temperature rate increases with the rise of
charging currents and results in the slight
decrease of SOCTR, mainly due to the increase of
joule heat generation
 The absence or presence of restraining plate was
found to have a significant influence on overcharge
test results, as the overcharged battery will swell

Effect of
seriously

restraining For the battery overcharged with restraining plate

(Configuration B), the voltage and resistance profiles
plate on overlaps with those without restraining
plate(Configuration A), while the temperature rate is
overcharge lower when SOC exceeds 1.4

behaviours The SOCTR increases from 1.670 to 1.705, indicating

that restraining plate can help to improve the
overcharge performance of lithium-ion battery
• The battery with restraining plate and cuts on the pouches (Configuration C)
presents the best overcharge performance with the SOCTR rising to 1.738 and the
TTR to 140.9o C, though the voltage and resistance profiles remain almost
unchanged
• For the battery with configuration C, the gas generated from some side reactions
inside the battery can be promptly released through the cuts on the pouches, and
thus high pressure as well as explosion can be prevented, resulting in delayed
occurrence of TR
Effect of heat dissipation on overcharge
behaviours

The increase of SOCTR under non-adiabatic condition results from the

decrease of temperature rate, especially when SOC exceeds 1.6, indicating
that excellent heat dissipation can help to lower the heat generation and
thus improve the overcharge performance of lithium-ion batteries
Discussion on TTR and the initiation of TR during overcharge
process

we can conclude that the initiation of TR during the overcharge process will
vary with different battery configuration, and proper design to promptly
release the high-pressure gas and thermal stable separator can help to
improve the overcharge performance of lithium ion batteries.