Battery Cluster Fire Suppression Linkage for Thermal Runaway
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current firefighting strategies for energy storage containers, such as total-flooding with gas, are inefficient in suppressing thermal runaway in new energy batteries, as the inhibitor is often stored in a single device and can fail to activate, leading to low suppression efficiency and increased risk of fire spreading.
Innovation Solution
A linkage control system for battery clusters, comprising detector modules, isolation-and-suppression devices with solenoid valves, and a control host that determines the status of inhibitors across clusters to redirect firefighting resources, ensuring timely and centralized suppression of thermal runaway by conveying inhibitors through a pipeline from healthy clusters to affected ones.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a total-flooding firefighting strategy is adopted with a single inhibitor storage device, then the system structure is simple, but the suppression efficiency is low due to potential activation failure
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides the inhibitor storage system into multiple isolation-and-suppression devices distributed across different battery clusters. Each device contains an inhibitor storage tank and can independently activate to suppress thermal runaway in its local cluster, eliminating the single-point-failure risk of a centralized system while maintaining overall system reliability.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements local inhibitor storage and suppression capability at each battery cluster level rather than using a centralized approach. Each isolation-and-suppression device is tailored to its specific cluster's needs, providing localized rapid response to thermal runaway events, which improves suppression efficiency by addressing fires at their source before they can spread.
2Object-affected harmful factors
If inhibitors are stored in a single device, then the device complexity is low, but the risk of fire spreading increases when activation fails
Solution Approach 1:
The inhibitor storage system is segmented into multiple independent isolation-and-suppression devices, each serving a specific battery cluster. This segmentation ensures that if one device fails to activate, others remain available to suppress thermal runaway, thereby reducing fire spread risk while distributing the system complexity across multiple manageable units rather than concentrating it in a single device.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent pre-positions inhibitor storage tanks in multiple battery clusters before thermal runaway occurs. This beforehand cushioning ensures that inhibitor resources are already distributed and ready for immediate deployment to any cluster experiencing thermal runaway, reducing fire spread risk by having suppression capability pre-prepared at multiple locations rather than relying on a single centralized source.
3Quantity of substance
If the inhibitor is conveyed from a distant cluster through pipeline, then the local inhibitor storage is insufficient, but the response time may be delayed
Solution Approach 1:
The patent pre-fills inhibitor storage tanks in multiple battery clusters before thermal runaway events occur. This preliminary action ensures that when thermal runaway happens in any cluster, the inhibitor is already locally available in the isolation-and-suppression device of that cluster, enabling immediate suppression without the time delay associated with conveying inhibitor through pipelines from distant locations.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This approach enhances the suppression efficiency of thermal runaway by dispersing inhibitors across clusters, preventing fire spread and ensuring continuous monitoring and resource allocation, thereby improving the overall energy storage container's firefighting capabilities.
Implementation Method 1
switch on a solenoid valve of an isolation-and-suppression device B in the second target battery cluster to let the inhibitor in the isolation-and-suppression device B be conveyed to the first target battery cluster through the pipeline
Data Source
AI summary
A linkage control system and a linkage control method for battery clusters are provided in the disclosure. In the system, when thermal runaway occurs in a certain battery cluster, in the condition that an inhibitor in an isolation-and-suppression device in the battery cluster is in a normal state, the control host can suppress thermal runaway of the battery cluster by the inhibitor in the isolation-and-suppression device. In the condition that the inhibitor in the isolation-and-suppression device is in an abnormal state, the control host can determine, from adjacent battery clusters, a battery cluster capable of supporting an inhibitor, to solve thermal runaway by the inhibitor in the isolation-and-suppression device in the battery cluster.