SafeBatt: Science of Battery Safety
As battery energy storage expands to increasingly demanding markets and emerging battery chemistries start to be deployed, there is a critical need to understand and validate the safety of these new systems. This is becoming a bottleneck for safety-critical emerging Li-ion markets such as aerospace, and for the early adoption of next-generation chemistries. Safety regulations have not kept pace with the fast changing battery space and new approaches are required that are relevant to these new chemistries and applications.
The SafeBatt project is increasing the fundamental understanding of the root causes of cell failure and the mechanisms of failure propagation. This improved knowledge of the science of safety is informing the design of safer batteries and battery systems, as well as informing standards development and stakeholders such as regulatory bodies and first responders.
Working closely with industry partners, including SMEs and international OEMs from automotive and aerospace, the project’s research encompasses both physical testing and characterisation, and a significant expansion of its research into failure modelling and digital twins – developing world leading capability for digital safety testing.
SafeBatt is investigating early warning of failure (cause), failure (effect) and failure response (mitigation). Its remit includes disseminating research outputs, providing training and influencing policy, whilst stimulating dialogue between industry and academia and with new energy storage sectors.
Timeline with milestone/deliverables (to March 2030):
- Develop techniques for early warning of failure by internal short circuit and/or thermal runaway.
- Inform the development of effective failure mitigation strategies by using state-of-the-art instrumentation and high-speed diagnostic techniques to study dynamic failure and the effects of failure and propagation.
- Study the science of battery failure in real-world settings and at larger scales, investigating thermal runaway propagation at module and pack level, the toxicity of fires and runoff, and how to deal with battery fires.
- Develop a world class platform for digital failure testing.
- Collate project outputs and facilitate engagement activities with numerous stakeholders, including first responders.
Project innovations
Abuse testing is costly and time-consuming, and experiments where cells are deliberately driven into thermal runaway are difficult to conduct in laboratory settings. Using digital twins to inform design is an invaluable tool for battery thermal management and will significantly contribute to safer systems. SafeBatt researchers have developed and experimentally validated a digital twin representation of a cell-cluster by integrating electrochemical and decomposition reaction kinetics sub-models with a turbulent flow sub-model for thermal runaway propagation. This model was used to investigate the effectiveness of thermal barrier materials in preventing propagation. The team is now engaging with at least two automotive OEMs on the use of such digital twins as a powerful design aid.
Through its extensive testing, characterisation and post mortem studies on both Na-ion solid-state battery technologies, the project is also informing improvements in safety in next-generation technologies.
Principal Investigator
Professor Paul Shearing
University of Oxford
Project Leader
Dr Julia Weaving
University College London
Project Manager
Paul Carter-Bowman
University of Oxford
University Partners
University of Oxford (Lead)
University College London
University of Cambridge
King’s College London
Newcastle University
University of Sheffield
University of Warwick
The Faraday Institution’s SafeBatt project has been enabled thanks to funding from the Battery Innovation Programme, through the Department for Business and Trade and delivered by Innovate UK.
