| Affiliations: | N/A |
| Project Leader: | James Thomas James.Chris.Thomas@tamu.edu Mechanical Engineering |
| Faculty Mentor: | Dr. Eric L Petersen, Ph.D. |
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Meeting Times:
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TBD – Team meetings will be scheduled every 1-2 weeks at the team’s convenience. |
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Team Size:
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4
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| Open Spots: | 0 |
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Special Opportunities:
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1) Exposure to lithium ion battery and combustion fundamentals; 2) Opportunities to present work at internal (TAMU) and/or external conferences; 3) Opportunities to be co-author on journal papers; 4) Potential exposure to personnel at NASA JSC.
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Team Needs:
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No prior research or experience is required. Team members should be dependable, excited to participate in research, and willing to learn. Preference will be given to students who are passionate about LIBs or combustion. Preference will be given to students with background (taken/enrolled) in heat transfer, thermodynamics, combustion science, or similar courses. Preference will be given to students who have experience with relevant software (AutoCAD, SolidWorks, ANSYS Fluent, CEA programs, etc.). Preference will be given to students who are interested in attending graduate school |
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Description:
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Lithium ion batteries (LIBs) are utilized as a means of electrical power storage in numerous common electronics (cell phones, laptops, etc.) and larger-scale systems (electric vehicles, spacecraft, etc.). Their catastrophic failure is generally derived from over-heating via thermal runaway and can release significant amounts of energy and toxic gases during subsequent combustion processes. These hazards are multiplied when the thermal runaway propagates from cell-to-cell in larger battery systems. The purpose of this project is to investigate 1) the hazards associated with LIB thermal runaway and 2) methods to mitigate propagation of thermal runaway. The research completed during the project will build upon previous collaborations with NASA Johnson Space Center’s Propulsion and Power Division. The project team will focus on modeling LIB hazards with chemical equilibrium analyses (CEA). The team will also focus on modeling the utilization of interstitial heat-sink materials as a potential mitigation strategy with standard COTS simulation software. Modeling efforts will be bench-marked against experiments that have been previously executed by the project mentor, collaborators, and other researchers. Furthermore, the results of these modeling efforts will help guide future R&D efforts at NASA Johnson Space Center |