Thermal Runaway of Lithium-Ion Batteries Triggered by Electromagnetic Interference

Lithium-ion batteries are used in many modern systems where several thermal runaway accidents are reported. Apart from mechanical abuse, the main cause of accidents are high current densities due to some internal short circuit, caused by overcharging or over-discharging. In this article, it is shown that the high current densities, far above the safe threshold, can also be caused by electromagnetic interference. As a battery is very comparable to a capacitor, the combination with interconnecting wires makes it a resonant, or a, unforeseen tuned, circuit. Experiments with electrolytic capacitors have been performed to confirm this effect, followed by experiments with lithium-ion battery cells. Then, high-frequency currents using the standard bulk current injection test setups, have been injected at the resonance frequency until thermal runaway that induces vent out occurs.