Calorimeter for Battery Safety
Problem statement
Imagine driving around town in a new electric vehicle when suddenly the vehicle bursts into flames. After the fire is extinguished, it is determined that the batteries of the vehicle were the cause of the fire. This sort of incident is substantially less likely today due to the rigorous testing that battery cells are put through, but it does still happen; on January 20th, 2023 a Tesla battery exploded on the highway and took 6,000 gallons of water to extinguish [1]. These incidents serve as a reminder of why battery testing is so important. As stated by Joshi et al., the world is at the dawn of the age of solid-state batteries [2], and these must be tested to ensure their safety in consumer products. However, current testing apparatuses are limited and slow down this innovation. Current devices are very expensive and only offer certain built-in sensors with no options for expansion [3]. Thus, there is a need for a low cost, modular device that can house numerous sensors at once and offer the ability to swap out sensors as desired, streamlining testing and advancing research for the future of batteries. This device must be able to trigger and monitor thermal runaway in batteries in order to find the safe limit that the battery can support. In this new age of batteries, it is critical that they be safely tested to save lives and property.
Cited sources:
[1] ‘Tesla car battery ‘spontaneously’ catches fire on California freeway, requiring 6,000 gallons of water to put it out,’ NBC News. Accessed: Sept. 22, 2025. [Online]. Available: https://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/tesla-car-battery-fire-needed-6000-gallons-water-to-extinguish-rcna68153
[2] A. Joshi, D. K. Mishra, R. Singh, J. Zhang, and Y. Ding, ‘A comprehensive review of solid-state batteries,’ Appl. Energy, vol. 386, p. 125546, May 2025, doi: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2025.125546.
[3] ‘Large Battery Adiabatic Calorimeter,’ zeal. Accessed: Sept. 22, 2025. [Online]. Available: https://www.zealinstruments.com/product/large-battery-adiabatic-calorimeter/
Team members
Bennett Hogeland – facilitator
Isaac Johns – accountant
Quinn Kaiser – communicator
Seamus Hendrickson – admin
Client
Eric Kazyak
UW – Mechanical Engineering