Abstract

Thermal runaway in electric vehicle power battery packs is a key risk in fire prevention and control for electric transportation. Its triggering, propagation, and failure modes are jointly affected by external thermal abuse, material insulation performance, and side reactions inside cells. To identify the temperature response and fire risk of power battery packs under different thermal abuse intensities, this study established a three-dimensional multiphysics thermal runaway simulation model in COMSOL Multiphysics 6.1, coupling solid heat transfer, electrochemical heat generation, and side-reaction heat release. A semi-quantitative risk ranking was then performed using failure mode, effects, and criticality analysis (FMECA). The model considered the low-temperature safe conditions, 120 °C, 140 °C, and 170 °C, as the main ambient temperature conditions, while also analyzing the effects of the heat transfer coefficient on trigger time and peak temperature. The results show that, under the low-temperature safe condition and the 120 °C condition, the battery module mainly exhibits slow heating and does not undergo thermal runaway. Based on the side-reaction characteristics, the temperature near 125 °C can be used as a risk warning threshold for thermal runaway. At 140 °C, the side-reaction heat source increases markedly, and the system enters the thermal runaway risk region. Because the trigger time is strongly affected by the heat transfer coefficient and monitoring position, this condition is interpreted only as a risk-acceleration stage under critical thermal abuse. Approximately 167 °C can be regarded as the critical threshold for irreversible thermal runaway. Under severe thermal abuse at 170 °C, rapid intensification of internal side reactions increases the peak module temperature to 375–385 °C. Temperature field evolution shows that heat is transferred mainly from the exterior to the interior before thermal runaway, forming an outside-high- and inside-low-temperature distribution. After the runaway stage begins, heat release from internal cell side reactions becomes dominant, and the high-temperature region concentrates inside the module, producing a gradient reversal with a higher internal temperature. The FMECA results show that the positive electrode–electrolyte reaction has the highest RPN, with a value of 405. Accelerated SEI decomposition and the negative electrode–electrolyte reaction also form key risk links in the chain heat-release pathway. This study provides a reference for thermal management, fire barrier design, and fire risk classification of power battery packs.

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