Thermal runaway and combustion of lithium-ion batteries in engine room fires on oil/electric-powered ships

•The thermal safety of lithium batteries in the fire of hybrid ship is proposed.•The calculation method of the heat required for thermal runaway of cell is proposed.•The jet fire height of the battery is dominated by thermal buoyancy in the fire.•The fire caused the rupture of battery safety valve, which is unrelated to the SOC.•The rupture of the battery safety valve and its thermal runaway can enhance the fire. The thermal characteristics of traditional fuel fires can be altered by the thermal instability of lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) in–oil-electric hybrid ships. The thermal runaway (TR) and combustion of 18,650 LiFePO4 LIBs with 0 %, 50 %, and 100 % states of charge (SOC) in pool fires were studied with different annular n-heptane pools. The goal is to simulate the thermal safety of LIBs in hybrid ships within the thermal environment of pool fires. The flame morphologies resulting from the combustion of the battery and pool fires, temperatures of the battery surface and flame, exhaust characteristics of the battery, heat radiated from the pool fire to the battery, and mass losses were analyzed. The results showed that the risks of thermal runaway and combustion with LIBs were significantly higher in a thermal fire environment. Lithium batteries produce jet fires that increase the width and height of the flame during pool fires. Moreover, the battery with a 0 % SOC doesn’t experience thermal runaway during the fire, but thermal runaway of the battery with a 100 % SOC is more severe than that of the battery with a 50 % SOC, and the maximum rates for their temperature increases are 12.98 °C/s and 7.12 °C/s, respectively. In addition, the energy balance method showed that the pressure relief by the battery safety valve during a fire was not dependent on the SOC. An equivalent network diagram was constructed for the radiative heat transfer between the lithium battery and the pool fire. It is proposed that the total heats required to induce thermal runaway of batteries with the same SOCs are almost the same in different thermal environments, but the energy required for the 50 % SOC battery is greater than that required for the 100 % SOC battery, 10,161 ± 59 J and 9724 ± 43 J, respectively. Moreover, the combustion rates were proportional to the height of the flame during the mixed combustion of a lithium battery jet fire and pool fire. A dimensionless model was developed for the relationship between flame height and mixed combustion rate.