Effects of abusive temperature environment and cycle rate on the homogeneity of lithium-ion battery

Highlights: • The homogeneity of LIB including temperature distribution, temperature difference and voltage difference was investigated. • With the increase of cycle rate, the homogeneity of LIB would be worse. • Under abusive temperature environment, the homogeneity of LIB would be exacerbated. • With the aggravation of abusive environment, the severity of non-homogeneity could be deteriorated. -- Abstract: A set of experiments were carried out at reduced and elevated temperatures (−10, −5, 0, 20, 50, 60 and 70 °C) to investigate the homogeneity of lithium-ion batteries under abusive temperature environment in combination with different cycle rates (1C, 2C, 3C and 4C). Based on the experimental results, we found that the surface temperature of battery increased gradually along the axial direction from anode to cathode indicating the position closer to cathode possessed larger internal resistance, therefore had larger heat generation. The homogeneity of battery deteriorated under large cycle rate exhibited as severer temperature rise and temperature difference. In addition, it was also found that the homogeneity of battery would be worse under abusive temperature environment by aggravating temperature rise, temperature difference and voltage difference. Compared to high temperature environment, low temperature environment would cause severer homogeneity. Moreover, the severity was exacerbated with the aggravation of abusive environment.