Determination of Thermal Runaway in Sealed Nickel-Cadmium Batteries

Abstract

Thermal runaway occurs in batteries of almost all electrochemical systems. The system housing the battery will inevitably fail in the event of thermal runaway. The purpose of the paper is to establish a thermal runaway mechanism in sealed nickel-cadmium batteries. The paper analyzed a number of experimental facts that prove that the generally accepted point of view on thermal runaway in nickel-cadmium batteries is incorrect. The emergence of a significant exothermic reaction, namely recombination reactions of atomic hydrogen accumulating in the electrodes, is shown to be connected with thermal runaway. Thermal runaway is found to occur ten times less intensively in sealed nickel-cadmium batteries than in unpressurized batteries.