China Safety Science Journal ›› 2025, Vol. 35 ›› Issue (5): 153-160.doi: 10.16265/j.cnki.issn1003-3033.2025.05.0757

• Safety engineering technology • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Research on effectiveness of aerogel fire extinguishing agents in preventing thermal runaway of lithium batteries

HE Lu1(), FU Jiangfeng1, SUN Rong2, ZHU Guoqing1, CHENG Qingying1, GUO Feng1,**()   

  1. 1 School of Safety Engineering, China University of Mining and Technology, Xuzhou Jiangsu 221116, China
    2 Electric Power Research Institute, State Grid Jiangsu Electric Power Company, Nanjing Jiangsu 211103, China
  • Received:2025-01-15 Revised:2025-03-21 Online:2025-05-28 Published:2025-11-28
  • Contact: GUO Feng

Abstract:

In order to evaluate the effectiveness of aerogel fire suppressants in preventing and controlling thermal runaway of lithium-ion batteries, this study selected aluminum-shell ternary lithium-ion battery cells and 18650 battery modules as experimental subjects. By employing differentiated fire suppression approaches (including application methods and operational parameters), comparative experiments on extinguishing efficacy were conducted in a systematic manner, with parallel comparisons to water-based fire suppression systems. The results show that the aerogel extinguishing agent has better fire extinguishing performance and cooling effect than water for different quantities of ternary aluminum-shell single lithium batteries and 18650 battery modules. For four ternary aluminum shell single lithium batteries, using water to extinguish fire will cause the battery temperature to rise to 492 ℃, which cannot quickly and effectively reduce battery temperature. The extinguishing speed of an aerogel extinguishing agent is 4.5 times that of water, and it can effectively prevent the battery from reburning. For 8 ternary aluminum shell single lithium batteries and two 18650 battery modules, the aerogel extinguishing agent still shows a good fire extinguishing effect, short fire extinguishing time, significant cooling effect and no reburning. Use of the aerogel extinguishing agent and fire extinguishing strategies of continuous spraying with large flow, small flow cooling after large flow spraying and spraying and flooding in containers have different fire extinguishing effects. Results show that the aerogel extinguishing agent can not only effectively extinguish initial battery fire, but also its preheating foaming mechanism and good foam stability can effectively reduce battery temperature and prevent further mixing of combustible gas and air.

Key words: lithium battery, fire extinguishing efficiency, thermal runaway, aerogel extinguishing agent, fire-fighting disposal

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