Battery Thermal Runaway Simulating Chemical Igniter

Human rated batteries must undergo thermal runaway propagation testing, in which a single cell in the battery is sent into thermal runaway to determine the severity of such a failure and if loss of vehicle/crew could occur. NASA does not have a gold-standard method of ignition that does not result in bias to the system due to the damage required of a live cell, resulting in lower confidence about test success and an inability to quantify margins effectively. The Lithium Ion Cell Simulating Chemical Igniter aims to standardize one or more classes of easily triggerable chemical igniters sized to replace a cell in a battery block. Such an igniter could reproduce the total ejected energy and timescale of a typical cell in a highly repeatable fashion, enabling a common test article for battery certification. This technology will allow commercial partners and NASA programs to easily define success and evaluate margins of safety.

This technology addresses the architectural need for a more standardized and rigorous thermal runaway propagation test. Such a device (or series of devices) will allow a common scoring method for anticipated energy, and survival at each level of initiator will give confidence in safety margins of battery units under test. It will also allow battery designs from entirely different systems and manufacturers to be fairly compared to one another. This technology will be broadly applicable to any commercial industry (e.g. automotive, aerospace, etc.) performing their own thermal runaway testing and would likely result in patent and commercial licensure, along with generally strengthening NASA’s leadership in the battery safety sector. In addition, it will also be utilized by other government agencies who build and test battery systems for use in their systems. 

This is a mature technology (TRL 7+) — the realistic path in is usually NASA's Technology Transfer Program: licensing an existing NASA patent, or a Space Act Agreement to use NASA facilities/expertise directly. NASA also runs a startup licensing program with no upfront fee for companies formed to commercialize a specific NASA technology.

None of these are guaranteed paths for this specific project — TechPort itself doesn't have an "apply" button. Reaching out to the contact(s) above with a specific question is usually the fastest way to find out what's actually open.