Hunan Electric Power ›› 2025, Vol. 45 ›› Issue (6): 50-55.doi: 10.3969/j.issn.1008-0198.2025.06.007

• Expert Column:Electric Power Prevention and Reduction • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Research on Heat Generation Characteristics of Thermal Runaway in Lithium Iron Phosphate Batteries

CHEN Hao, CHEN Chuan, YANG Kai, WEI Bin, ZHANG Mingjie   

  1. Energy Storage Department, China Electric Power Research Institute, Beijing 100192, China
  • Received:2025-09-01 Revised:2025-10-09 Online:2025-12-25 Published:2026-01-13

Abstract: The heat generation characteristics of LiFePO4(LFP) batteries during thermal runaway(TR) are directly tied to their safety performance in practical applications. Using 60A·h LFP batteries as the research subject, this study focuses on comparing heat generation processes under different test environments, detailing combustion evolution laws of the anode, separator, and cathode, systematically revealing the TR mechanism of the battery, and obtaining the total heat released from TR and combustion under adiabatic, room temperature, and pure oxygen conditions. Results indicate that LFP battery TR can be divided into four stages: heating, self-heating (initial temperature 105 ℃), internal short circuit(initial temperature 136 ℃), and TR (trigger temperature 200 ℃). In a room temperature environment, the anode responds fastest to combustion and has the highest heat release peak. The total heat release of battery TR under the three conditions reaches 430.26 kJ, 1 035.84 kJ, and 20 135.13 kJ, respectively. The findings can provide valuable support for formulating TR suppression strategies in energy storage stations and for designing fire protection measures.

Key words: lithium-iron phosphate(LiFePO4, LFP) batteries, thermal runaway(TR) mechanism, test environments, heat generation, energy storage safety

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