For comparison to the Li-ion battery, evaluating a thermal battery must consider additional variables. The first one is the temperature difference between the battery and its unit cell. Thermal batteries and their unit cells have a temperature difference that is caused by the thermal battery activation mechanism and its shape. The second variable is the electrochemical reaction steps. Most Li-ion batteries have a constant electrochemical reaction at the electrode, and battery voltage is affected when the concentration of Li ions is changed. However, a thermal battery has several steps in its electrochemical reaction, and each step has a different potential. In this study, we used unit cell discharge tests based on interpolating a 4D lookup table to estimate the performance of a thermal battery. From the test results, we derived an estimation algorithm by interpolating the table, which is queried from specified profile groups. As a result, we found less than a 5 percent difference between estimation and experiment at the 1.3 V cut-off time.
