Combustion Gas Examination of a Battery Housing in Electrically Driven Heavy Goods Vehicle

Abstract

Nowadays, electrically propelled vehicles are becoming more and more popular. Due to the propulsion system, the risks derived from the operation have changed, compared to the conventionally driven vehicles. The investigated vehicle has the same, new risk factor originating from the behaviour of rechargeable energy storage system (RESS) during combustion and there is only a minority of available literature dealing with the investigation of the battery housing. According to our assumption the housing is a fire comburent material that hinders the work of first responders. In this research we conducted the laboratory examination of a prismatic LiFePO4 battery cell and battery pack cover used in electrically driven vehicles during burning. Combustion gases were collected and were evaluated with the help of gas chromatography. Our results show that plastic housing and cell covers are not recommended in automotive industrial use, because of their comburent characteristics, also the combustion gases are severely harmful. This paper includes the method of sampling, the experiment itself and the results.