The world community is constantly and rapidly moving toward the search for
alternative and ecologically clean energy sources, including for transport, and
Russia’s war against Ukraine only intensified and accelerated such processes.
This trend in transport is reflected in the spread of battery-powered electric
vehicles (BEVs) with zero emission of harmful gases.
Electric cars are experiencing a rapid increase in numbers, accompanied by the
emergence of lesser-known risks. Among these hazards are the occurrence of fires
in electric vehicles, primarily caused by component failures, notably the widely
prevalent lithium-ion batteries.
Fires of such cars have a different character compared to fires of vehicles
powered by an internal combustion engine vehicle (ICEV). In this study, using
the fire dynamics simulator developed by the National Institute of Standards and
Technology, a BEV fire was simulated on the example of the Tesla Model S. For
this, a description of the objects and their physical characteristics were
carried out, the input parameters of the BEV and environmental parameters were
set, and a mathematical model of the development dynamics of fire was formed.
According to the modeling results, it was found that the minimum fire protection
distance from a BEV to the wall of buildings of various functional purposes
should be at least 3 m, provided that the free fire development time is 600
s.
