The validation of a thermal battery model using electrically-inert and active batteries

Physical property data on thermal battery component materials were obtained from the matching of model simulations to experimental thermocouple responses of inert batteries, here defined as dummy batteries. This has been done for some thermal battery designs by: (i) building and testing a series of 30 dummy batteries fitted with internal thermocouples, whose stacks consisted merely of pyrotechnic pellets alternating with a single type of cell component pellet in each one; and (ii) using the physical data for each cell component generated in (i) to predict temperatures of some active thermal batteries fitted with internal thermocouples. The data obtained were used in simulations of active batteries, which showed that their temperature could be predicted well and that discharge profiles could be adequately simulated in some cases.<>