Transcript
The future of energy isn’t just about power. It’s about precision and insight.
At KULR, our impingement zone mapping system takes battery safety to a new level, providing clear visibility into the dynamics of thermal runaway events. When batteries enter thermal runaway, understanding the behavior of heat and ejecta isn’t optional. It’s essential.
My name is AJ Sauter, and I’m the Director of Testing and Analysis here at KULR.
Our Advanced Impingement Zone mapping technology precisely measures how heat and particles impact surfaces, capturing real-time thermal patterns through strategically placed thermocouples behind copper and aluminum plates.
Our method uncovers critical differences among various battery form factors, highlighting exactly how each responds under stress. Cylindrical cells behave differently than pouch or prismatic cells, and these differences matter. Cylindrical, pouch, and prismatic formats each exhibit unique thermal behaviors, directly influencing how protective measures must be engineered.
With detailed, actionable data from our system, engineers can confidently design barriers and protective elements tailored to specific thermal threats. By accurately predicting heat distribution and intensity, battery developers can effectively manage risk, enhancing both safety and performance.
At KULR, impingement zone mapping provides clear, actionable insights, empowering battery innovators to design safer, smarter, and with absolute confidence.
Changing the Game for Battery Innovators
Impingement zone mapping is a technique developed by KULR Technology Corporation to help engineers develop safer batteries. It provides essential data on how cell type and trigger method affect battery ejecta behavior during thermal runaway.Â
The Challenges of Designing For Thermal Runaway Events
When lithium-ion batteries get too warm, overcharge, short circuit, or become damaged, they can sometimes fall into thermal runaway. This violent and uncontrollable chemical chain reaction can create an enormous safety hazard as the battery self-destructs, potentially catching on fire or even exploding.
To make lithium-ion batteries safer in high-risk settings such as space or defense, battery developers must plan for thermal runaway. The next generation of batteries needs strong battery enclosures, thermal barriers, and safety features that can reduce the risk of a damaged battery turning into a safety hazard. Unfortunately, that’s easier said than done.
During a thermal runaway event, lithium-ion cells can reach internal temperatures of 1000 °C or more, which causes the electrode materials, separators, and electrolyte components to rapidly degrade. In the process, the battery expels a variety of materials as ejecta that are hazardous in different ways, including:
- Gaseous ejecta like carbon dioxide, hydrogen, and flammable hydrocarbons that can ignite as they are exposed to oxygen and produce intense jet flames.Â
- Decomposed electrolyte and melted separator materials that form highly conductive residues, increasing the risk of electrical shorts.Â
- Fragmented casing, electrode debris, and other solids that create mechanical hazards as they are ejected at high velocity and add to thermal propagation in battery packs.Â
Adding to these safety concerns, the interactions between different ejecta phases can lead to unique, hard-to-characterize heat transfer dynamics. Engineers must understand these dynamics to develop safer battery enclosures, thermal barriers, and venting mechanisms.
Getting Essential Data With Impingement Zone Mapping
Impingement zone mapping collects key data about how ejecta behaves, including its velocity. It also determines the size, shape, and intensity of the impingement zone. With this vital information, engineers can spot weaknesses in battery enclosures and create safer designs.
Impingement zone mapping can capture data for lithium-ion batteries in 18650, 21700, cylindrical, prismatic, and custom pouch formats. You can swap out the blast plate shielding materials and see how different cell types and trigger methods perform.
Each experiment also gives developers insights from:
- 360° view mapping at 240 FPS
- Heat rate (W) and heat flux (W/m²) analysis
- Open cavity testing that supports IR camera videography
Developing a Safer Generation of Lithium-ion Batteries
Impingement zone mapping is just one part of our suite of battery abuse testing and calorimetry services. We also offer:
- Small fraction calorimetry (<10 Ah)
- Medium and large format fractional calorimetry (10 Ah – 200 Ah)
- Extended volume bomb calorimetry
KULR Technology Group Inc. delivers cutting-edge energy storage solutions for space, aerospace, and defense through a combination of in-house battery design expertise, comprehensive cell and battery testing, and battery fabrication and production capabilities. We can deliver commercial off-the-shelf and custom next-generation energy storage systems in rapid timelines for a fraction of the cost compared to traditional programs.Â
Contact KULR today to learn more about impingement zone mapping or see how we can meet your battery testing needs.
