METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR UTILIZING THE TIME SEQUENCE OF SENSOR EVENTS TO DETERMINE THE CAUSE OF A THERMAL RUNAWAY EVENT

A system, method, and computer program product for determining the cause of a battery condition, such as a thermal runaway event, are provided. An example battery safety evaluation system may include a battery having a battery housing and an interior battery compartment. The battery safety evaluation system may include internal sensing elements attached to the interior battery compartment and configured to capture data representative of an internal battery condition event. The battery safety evaluation system may further include an external sensing element attached to the battery housing and configured to capture data representative of an external battery condition event. In addition, the battery safety evaluation system may include a controller for determining a cause of the battery condition based at least in part on a time sequence of events generated from the internal data captured by the internal sensing element and the external data captured by the external sensing element.