A State of Charge Analysis of 12 Lithium Ion Batteries (12.8 Volt) Previously Shipped on Aircraft

Details

• Creators:
  Keslar, Daniel
• Corporate Creators:
  United States. Department of Transportation. Federal Aviation Administration. William J. Hughes Technical Center. Fire Safety Section
• Corporate Publisher:
  United States. Department of Transportation. Federal Aviation Administration. William J. Hughes Technical Center
• Corporate Contributors:
  United States. Department of Transportation. Federal Aviation Administration. Office of Hazardous Materials Safety
• Subject/TRT Terms:
  • Lithium batteries
  • Batteries by chemical elements
  • Air shipments
  • Safety analysis
  • Transportation
  • Battery transport
  • UN3480
  • Thermal runaway
  • Smolder
  • Incident
• Publication/ Report Number:
  DOT/FAA/TCTN-24/22
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.21949/p3ky-m727
• Resource Type:
  Tech Report
• Geographical Coverage:
  United States
• Description:
  The transportation of lithium batteries is heavily regulated. UN 3480, lithium-ion batteries (batteries not packed with or contained within equipment) are forbidden on passenger aircraft and cannot exceed 30% state of charge (SoC) when transported on cargo aircraft. In March 2024, two packages containing lithium-ion cells (UN3480) started to smolder while being loaded into a unit load device (ULD) at the Hong Kong International Airport. An investigation determined that numerous cells within both packages showed significant signs of charring. Other packages from this shipping account had arrived at its destination airport in Ontario, California. A team of hazardous materials aviation safety inspectors from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)'s Office of Hazardous Materials Safety (AXH) inspected the packages on-site in California. Subsequently, AXH contacted the FAA's Fire Safety Branch to aid in further analysis. Twelve batteries were sent to the Fire Safety Branch at the William J. Hughes Technical Center, where testing was performed to determine the as-delivered SoC. Findings determined that the average SoC of the twelve lithium-ion batteries was 49.2%.
• Format:
  PDF
• Download URL:
  https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/77600/dot_77600_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 309.84 KB]
• Collection(s):
  FAA Fire Safety ; FAA William J. Hughes Technical Center for Advanced Aerospace
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:2979ab78d1c2e4a4de14f33d65f5bc10587bb0e97617c1b74b0f63ee9759d84098c9184e8d15bb9b6b809f69a27baef29dca1806d6f566e731f0b63a31907dc8