The Forensic Analysis for Battery Assessment

Source: UL Battery Standards

Nowadays, almost every battery manufacturing develops the root analysis to avoid battery failure production. A battery product should pass the four test level minimum. Cell level test, module level test, unit level test, and installation level test. Of course, this method related to battery standardization. For overcoming that issue, The Underwriters Laboratories (UL) and Singapore Battery Consortium (SBC) conducted webinar on May 19, 2021 about standards for energy storage system (ESS). According to Alvin Wu, Research Manager of Underwaters Laboratories (UL), states that forensic analysis becomes a key for the parameter of battery/energy storage quality. This method needs an analytical techniques, such as X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM), Gas Chromatography (GC), CT, DSC, EIS, and LIBS.

For example, let’s take a look at Lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). On the perspective of safety issue, there are three contributing factors for LIBs. Design (geometry, construction, and material), Use (normal use, abuse, and aging effects), and Quality (uniformity, consistence, and defects). According to forensic analysis, the battery failure is normally caused by multiple contributing factors. Single factor is merely not easy to cause LIB failure. Design aspect can decide failure mode and severity. However, quality can change the likelihood of failure. Besides, the tolerance of abuse/aging is normally dominated by battery design and quality. For further, forensic analysis can help to analyze root causes of battery safety problem.