Forensic Analysis of Catastrophic LIB Thermal Runaway Safety Incidents – 5th International Battery Safety Workshop

The 5^th International Battery Safety Workshop (IBSW) was held August 31 to September 1, 2026 in Houston, TX. Co-hosted by the Underwriters Laboratory (UL) Electrochemical Safety Research Institute and Sandia National Laboratories (SNL), the IBSW brings together international experts in the growing field of lithium-ion battery (LIB) safety to provide a venue for knowledge transfer between academia and industry.

First held in 2015 at the Technische Universität München (TUM) Institute for Advanced Study (IAS), Munich, Germany, the IBSW is conducted every 2-yr. alternating between venues in Europe, USA, and Asia. Speakers are selected by invitation only and more recently, poster presentations have been prioritized to encourage the identification of major research challenges, fields of future international collaboration, and industrial projects. Dr. Barrera was invited and presented various LIB safety topics at the 1^st (Munich, Germany in 2015) , 2^nd (Albuquerque, NM in 2017), 3^rd (Beijing, China in 2019), and more recently the 5^th IBSW.

Dr. Judy Jeevarajan (VP & Distinguished Scientific Advisor, Electrochemical Safety Research Institute) and Dr. Tom Barrera (LIB-X Consulting).

At this year's IBSW, Tom presented a talk titled, "Forensic Analysis of Catastrophic Lithium-Ion Battery Thermal Runaway Safety Incidents", which focused on non-destructive evaluation (NDE) techniques for investigating LIB safety incidents. The presentation emphasized the standard industry processes used to investigate catastrophic safety incidents which are suspected to have been caused by LIB-based power systems. "Advanced NDE radiographic techniques such as computed tomography (CT) scanning is commonly used to examine lithium-ion cells, batteries, and associated electronics which are suspected to have been causal in a safety incident", said Dr. Barrera. Advantages of CT-scanning include the ability to produce 3-D (color and b/w) images of the physical characteristics of cells or batteries without requiring destructive physical analysis of the test specimen under investigation. High-resolution CT-scanning can also be used to examine cell-level internal and external defects such as anode overhang, electrode misalignment, and weld quality. CT-scanning has also been used to reveal the presence of foreign objects and debris (FOD) and native objects and debris (NOD) which can contribute to the risk of cell-level internal short circuiting.

After the end of the session, Tom joined Dr. Ryan Spray (Exponent, Inc.), Dr. Aaron Petronico (Hewlett-Packard), and Dr. Boryann Liaw (Professor, Forschungszentrum Jülich) in a moderated panel discussion on thermal runaway science and LIB failure mechanisms.