Development of Experimental Apparatus for Fire Resistance Test of Rechargeable Energy Storage System in xEV

摘要

To secure the safety of xEV (all types of electrical vehicles), the United Nations released Global Technical Regulation No. 20, "Global Technical Regulations on the EVS (Electric Vehicle Safety)" in March 2018. The fire resistance test of the rechargeable energy storage system (REESS) describes an experimental procedure to evaluate the safety performance-specifically, whether passengers would have sufficient time to escape from the xEV before the explosion of the battery in a fire. There are two options for component-based REESS fire resistance tests: a gasoline pool fire and a liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) burner. This study describes the process for optimizing the specifications of the fire resistance test apparatus for xEV batteries using an LPG burner, which was first proposed by the Republic of Korea. Based on the results of the measurement and a computational fluid dynamics analysis of the prototype test apparatus, new equipment designs were proposed by determining the nozzle spacing and number, fuel flow rate, and experimental conditions. To cover a wide range of xEV battery sizes, a final test apparatus consisting of 625 burners was selected. For three different battery sizes, it was possible to satisfy the temperature requirements, ranging from 800 to 1000 degrees C, of the GTR fire resistance test. The final apparatus design developed in the present study has been included in GTR No. 20 for EVS since March 2018.