Battery Abuse Testing: Uncovering Failure Modes and Safety Limits

What happens when a battery is pushed to its limits? Battery abuse testing plays a critical role in understanding how batteries respond when subjected to conditions beyond normal operation. These tests help engineers evaluate safety, identify potential failure modes, and observe battery behavior under stress.

This 30-minute webinar will provide an overview of battery abuse testing including why it is performed, how it is conducted, and what types of insights it can offer across battery applications. Attendees will gain a foundational understanding of common abuse test methods and what the results can tell them, allowing viewers to best understand how abuse testing fits into the broader product development and safety evaluation process.

The program will use practical examples to illustrate how abuse testing supports informed engineering decisions, helps identify risk early in development, and compliments other testing activities. An audience Q&A session will follow the technical presentation.

Speakers:

Mike Pendleton, Global Technical Director – Materials Technology, Element

As Element’s Global Technical Director, Mike Pendleton offers extensive experience in battery safety, abuse testing, and failure analysis across many diverse applications. Working closely with engineering teams worldwide, he helps interpret abuse test data, identify emerging failure mechanisms, and translate testing results into actionable design and risk insights. Mike’s work focuses on understanding battery behavior beyond compliance testing to improve safety, reliability, and real-world performance.

Emily Klein, Lead Engineer - Battery Failure Analysis, Element

Emily Klein, Element Gainesville’s Lead Failure Analysis Engineer, emphasizes the critical importance of understanding failure mechanisms at both the cell and pack levels. With expertise in failure analysis and regulatory testing, she brings a unique perspective to the design and execution of custom abuse and performance tests. Her hands-on experience spans cell and battery-level abuse testing, performance evaluation, and the development of specialized methods to uncover failure mechanisms. Working closely with her team, she designs experiments that generate relevant, data-driven insights to inform safety, reliability, and performance improvements.

Moderator:

Amanda Hosey, Editor, SAE Media Group