Scientists at Austrian Technical University of Graz, are smashing batteries for safety sake, although they do have a serious reason. They want batteries to be sufficiently durable, to be able to cope with their ever-increasing power.
And so the serious scientists spend their days crushing batteries, and crashing them into walls. They want to understand how pressing them, squeezing them, and stressing them takes them to the point of failure.
Smashing Batteries at TU Graz Battery Safety Center
The Graz researchers are learning how battery resilience varies in different environments. And so they trial their batteries in charged and uncharged states. But only after they first expose them to different stresses in their working lives.
However, those ‘working lives’ pan out in their laboratory, where they apply precise mechanical pressure to simulate actual use. They are developing very precise criteria too, and exacting equipment to measure the stresses precisely.
Stressing Lithium-Ion Batteries to Make Them Safer
The Austrian scientists are focusing their attention on lithium-ion batteries, because these are popular but slightly more prone to failure. There are several overlapping aspects to their program:
- They examine battery performance under high loads of demand.
- But they are also taking a closer look at degradation with aging.
- While continuously monitoring them during their first and second lives.
Keeping the Scientists Safe in Their Laboratory
Exploding lithium-ion batteries do not make for good company. The scientists at Technical University of Graz have made a ‘t-cell-dummy’. This looks like a classic cylindrical cell from the outside. However, if you open it, all you will find is a heating foil and electronics.
“This allows us to simulate heat generation while eliminating the risk sources,“ a team member explains. “These could otherwise lead to chemical reactions and fires under extreme stress.
“Coupling the dummy with a sophisticated simulation that runs in the background on the test rig, enables battery operation to be replicated precisely.” This while smashing batteries for safety sake.
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