Li/CFx battery thermal analysis: Experiment and simulation

A large amount of heat generated during the discharge process of lithium carbon fluorides (Li/CFx) batteries is one of the problems hindering their practical use, especially at large discharge rate. But such little work concerned on the thermal properties of high-energy, large-capacity Li/CFx batteries during the entire discharge process. In this work, heat generation and average surface temperature evolution of a 48 Ah Li/CFx pouch cell discharging at 0.1C are evaluated using accelerating rate calorimeter under an adiabatic condition for the first time. The total thermal energy generated is calculated as 345.5 kJ and the average heating power of the Li/CFx pouch cell is about 8 W. Furthermore, a 3D model is built in Comsol to predict temperature evolution, which shows high precision. The surface temperature simulation results show that reasonable heat dissipation method for Li/CFx pouch cells when discharging at high rate can ensure the safety of the batteries. This cost-effective methodology can predict the average battery surface temperatures during discharging process and improve heat dissipation conditions, which play a key role to design a good thermal management system. •Heat generation of Li/CFx cell are evaluated using accelerating rate calorimeter.•A 3D model is built in Comsol to predict temperature evolution.•The average heating power of the Li/CFx cell is are conducted.