Tesla Inc (TSLA)

[boston745]

Faulty battery link to storage unit fire - report'

A large fire at a storage unit in Surrey was probably caused by a faulty battery, a report has said.

The blaze in May 2023 at Access Self Storage, in Byfleet, caused plumes of smoke to be visible for miles.

A heavily redacted report by the South East Fire Investigation Group into the incident said the investigation had concluded "that the most probable cause of fire was a defective lithium-ion cell" in a unit on the second floor.

Access Self Storage said its insurers had processed 80% of claim forms received and settled 73%.
'Spread rapidly'

Surrey Fire and Rescue Service said it could not comment on the report due to "potential" legal cases.

The report - which has been seen by the BBC - said the defective cell may have caused a "thermal runaway", which spread to other lithium-ion batteries in one of the units.

A thermal runaway is an accelerating increase in temperature caused by chemical reactions which can "lead to fire, explosion... and unpredictable fire behaviour," according to the National Fire Chiefs Council.

The South East Fire Investigation Group report concluded that the fire had "spread rapidly" to "combustible materials" within the same unit before spreading to other units.

Ah yes the magical defective cell. How convenient. Since there is no mention of dendrites in this, i bet it wasnt defective but suffered thermal runaway due to EM radiation causing the cell to overcharge/discharge.

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How does EMF cause lithium batteries to experience thermal runaway and thus spontaneously combust? One of two main ways:

#1 - Overcharge/Discharge

With various impressed external magnetic field intensities an effect was noticed on the charge and discharge curves as well as the charge and mass concentrations within the batteries. With the two-dimensional model starting from 0mT and going to 1mT had the effect of discharging the battery faster and charging the battery faster. With the two-dimensional model starting from 1mT and going to -1mT had the effect of charging the battery faster. In either case an effect on the various characteristics of the battery were studied. With the experiments conducted on the two types of batteries the effect was more profound than subtle. Discharge times were twice as fast and charge times were equally
affected. With the smaller batteries they all generally charged faster under the presence of a magnetic field due to more uniform penetration. In the presence of the field they also discharged faster. The larger batteries would not see the same uniform penetration because only a small area of the battery sees the center of the coil it is placed on

In this dissertation, they found that external magnetic fields significantly increased charge and discharge rates in individual lithium battery cells; like shown in the following image. They also found that smaller batteries were impacted to a greater degree than larger ones. This is likely a reason Tesla is switching to larger battery cells in addition to employing magnetic attenuating honeycomb sandwich battery pack.

Thermal Runaway of Lithium-Ion Batteries Triggered by Electromagnetic Interference
https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9025761

https://ars.els-cdn.com/content/image/1-s2.0-S0378775320302172-fx1_lrg.jpg

#2 - Stimulation of Dendrite Growth

Thermoelectric current causes asymmetric growth pattern of dendrites.

thermoelectromagnetic convection occurs in the vicinity of the solid-liquid interface, and vortices are generated between dendritic arms. It is shown that the thermoelectromagnetic convection has a major influence on dendritic morphology.

Quote Sources:

#1:https://digitalcommons.njit.edu/theses/1743

#2:https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S001793101930225X
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c03d3316wrxo