Batteries 2025, 11(11), 419; DOI: doi.org/10.3390/batteries11110419

The Impact of C-Rate, Float Charging and Temperature on Pouch Lithium-Ion Battery Swelling

Sahithi Maddipatla¹, Lingxi Kong^1,2, Michael Osterman¹, Jonghoon Kim³, and Michael Pecht^1
1Center for Advanced Life Cycle Engineering (CALCE), University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA
²Global Institute of Future Technology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China
³Department of Electrical Engineering, Chungnam National University, Daejeon 34134, Republic of Korea

For more information about this article and related research, please contact Prof. Michael Pecht.

Abstract:

Swelling in pouch batteries poses reliability issues and safety hazards, resulting in product damage, fires, and explosions. This study examines swelling based on the impact of C-rate and temperature during charge–discharge tests, and upper voltage limit and temperature during constant voltage/float charging tests. Internal cell dynamics related to swelling are analyzed using equivalent circuit model parameters from electrochemical impedance spectroscopy tests, and correlations with thickness are established. Constant voltage charging experiments show that swelling follows an initial increase, a plateau, and then a rapid escalation. The onset of rapid swelling accelerated with temperature and voltage, thereby reducing the time to the knee point. A double-exponent swelling model is developed to predict the evolution of thickness under various stress conditions. The results demonstrate that monitoring swelling rate and magnitude can serve as an effective diagnostic for identifying abnormal cell behavior.

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