How Dangerous are Burning Electric Cars?
upstart writes in with an IRC submission for RandomFactor:
How dangerous are burning electric cars?:
There' s a loud bang, and then it starts: A battery module of an electric car is on fire in the Hagerbach test tunnel. A video of the test impressively shows the energy stored in such batteries: Meter-long flames hiss through the room and produce enormous amounts of thick, black soot. The visibility in the previously brightly lit tunnel section quickly approaches zero. After a few minutes, the battery module is completely burnt out. Ash and soot have spread throughout the room.
The trial, which was funded by the Swiss Federal Roads Office (FEDRO) and in which several Empa researchers participated, took place in December 2019. The results have just been published.
[...] With the support of battery researcher Marcel Held and corrosion specialist Martin Tuchschmid from Empa, Mellert developed three test scenarios. Experts from the Hagerbach AG test tunnel and the French Centre d'etudes des tunnels (CETU) in Bron were also involved. "We installed test surfaces in the fire tunnel on which the soot settled," explains Martin Tuchschmid, corrosion and fire damage specialist at Empa. "After the test, the surfaces were chemically analyzed and also stored in special rooms for several months to detect possible corrosion damage."
- Scenario 1: Fire in an enclosed space
- Scenario 2: Fire in a room with sprinkler system
- Scenario 3: Fire in a tunnel with ventilation
[...] The results of the test were published in a final report in August 2020. Project leader Mellert reassures: In terms of heat development a burning electric car is not more hazardous than a burning car with a conventional drive.
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