| Affiliations: | STEM Research Leadership |
| Project Leader: | James ‘Chris’ Thomas, Ph.D. James.Chris.Thomas@tamu.edu Mechanical Engineering |
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Meeting Times:
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TBD |
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Team Size:
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4 |
| 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 conference and 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 thermodynamics, heat transfer, solid mechanics, or similar courses. Preference will be given to students who have prior knowledge/experience with CAD programs and machining. 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 (TR) 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 retrofit an existing experimental apparatus (optically-accessible, closed-volume bomb) to accommodate experiments involving LIB TR and combustion. These experiments are aimed at dire3ctly investigating the parameters (battery chemistry, atmospheric conditions, etc.) that influence the severity of and the gases produced during LIB TR processes. Captured gases will be analyzed via gas chromatography for their composition. These experimental efforts will improve the current state of knowledge regarding LIB TR, benchmark parallel modeling efforts, and allow for safer LIB designs |