About the Event
Innovators at the NASA Johnson Space Center have developed a calorimeter
that is able to measure the total heat generated when specific types of
Lithium-ion (Li-ion) cells are driven into a thermal runaway condition.
By understanding the behavior of a thermal runaway Li-ion battery,
designers can improve the cell cases to contain or reduce damages
experienced during thermal runaway. For this reason, this technology can
benefit many different industries that depend on Li-ion batteries.
Terrestrial applications include consumer electronics, battery safety,
electric vehicles, and more!
During the webinar, you will learn much more about this novel
technology, as well as how NASA’s technologies and capabilities are
available to industry and other organizations through the NASA
Technology Transfer Program.
About the Presenters
Dr. William Walker
Dr. William Q. Walker received a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from
West Texas A&M University and a Ph.D. in Materials Science and
Engineering from the University of Houston. William is employed by NASA
Johnson Space Center where his career primarily focuses on the safe
design and optimization of lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery assemblies for
human spaceflight applications. Specifically, William focuses on the
thermal management of Li-ion battery assemblies, battery safety in
general, and the development of new calorimetric techniques for thermal
runaway characterization. Most recently, Dr. Walker has been involved
with and supported the development of Fractional Thermal Runaway
Calorimetry (FTRC) techniques which provide the capability to discern
the fraction of thermal runaway energy ejected away from the Li-ion cell
versus that which remains with the cell. Recently recognized with a
NASA Trailblazer award and with the RNASA Stellar Award for his early
career contributions to Li-ion battery thermal analysis and calorimetry
methods, Dr. Walker continues to be engaged in the academic and
professional communities focused on battery safety.
Dr. Eric Darcy
Eric C. Darcy, Ph.D, has spent his 33 year career at NASA in the areas
of battery design, verification, and safety assessments for the rigors
of manned spacecraft applications. As Battery Technical Discipline Lead
at NASA JSC, his main objective has been the development of safe, while
high performing, battery systems with a deep focus on understanding,
preventing, and mitigating latent defects that could lead to
catastrophic cell internal short circuits. With National Renewable
Energy Laboratory (NREL) colleagues, he is co inventor of the patented
On demand Internal Short Circuit Device that has provided significant
design insights into the cell response during thermal runaway (TR),
enabled valid battery TR propagation assessment, and received the
prestigious R&D100 award in 2016 and Runner up NASA Invention of
2017.
He has led NASA’s design and test efforts for providing a path for developing safe, high
performing Li ion spacecraft batteries using small commercial cells. He teaches a Li ion battery
safety course with emphasis on design features and verification measures for achieving passive propagation resistance.
John Darst
John Jacob Darst is a Chemical Engineering BS graduate from Texas
A&M University, and early career engineer at NASA Johnson Space
Center. He is the lead mechanical designer behind the FTRC system,
taking one of his first full time projects from early concept to fully
successful in just a few years. In 2019 he was awarded the NASA Early
Career Medal for outstanding performance. Jacob’s time at JSC has been
primarily concerned with battery safety, with projects ranging from cell
design feature analysis up to full pack design and integration. He has
developed a number of novel thermal runaway initiation methods as well
as devices for the calorimetric study of various sizes and formats of
lithium ion cells.
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