Early thermal-runaway detection

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Battery management system

The electronics and software that keep a battery inside its safe window: measuring every cell voltage and many temperatures, estimating SOC and SOH, balancing cells, computing current limits, controlling the contactors and reporting over the vehicle network.

Gas detection

Sensors in a pack or storage container that detect electrolyte vapour or hydrogen released before thermal runaway. Off-gas appears minutes before heat and smoke, which makes it the earliest practical warning.

Internal short circuit

An unintended electronic path between the electrodes inside a cell — through a metal particle, a burr, a damaged separator or lithium deposits. It discharges the cell internally and turns its energy into local heat.

Off-gas

The mixture released when a cell vents: electrolyte vapour, hydrogen, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide and hydrocarbons, with hydrogen fluoride. It is flammable and toxic, and gas sensors detect it before smoke or heat in a storage container.

Thermal runaway

Self-accelerating heating in a cell: heat speeds up reactions that release more heat, until the cell vents, catches fire or ruptures. An internal short, overcharge or external heating can trigger it.

R100.03

The third series of amendments to UN R100, in force for new vehicle types from 2023. It added the thermal-propagation requirement — a warning to occupants at least five minutes before a hazardous event in the cabin, aligned with GTR 20 — plus documentation of the battery’s safe-state behaviour and a low-energy exemption for small systems.

References & further reading

Further reading on this topic

These sources provide broader context; they are not presented as citations for every statement in this entry.

1. Thermal runaway mechanism of lithium ion battery for electric vehicles: A review

   Xuning Feng et al. · Energy Storage Materials · 2018

   Topic background · Electrical, mechanical and thermal abuse; thermal-runaway mechanisms and propagation.