A review of 150 papers shows the high variability of LiB fires, importance of battery chemistry and of state of charges (SOC). Batteries with lithium iron phosphate cathodes show significantly lower peak temperature and lower risk of thermal runaway than those with lithium cobalt oxide or lithium nickel manganese cathodes. Heat release rate increases and time to thermal runaway decreases with SOC (i.e. with the energy held in the battery). The authors note that modelling of lithium ion battery fires is challenging, and that different battery testing protocols and different standards between battery manufacturers make data comparison difficult.
“A Review of Experimental and Numerical Studies of Lithium Ion Battery Fires”, M. Ghiji et al., Appl. Sci. 2021, 11, 1247. https://doi.org/10.3390/app11031247