When
Thursday, November 12, 2026, at 4:00 p.m.
Loraine Torres-Castro
Battery Safety Lead
Sandia National Laboratories
"Rethinking Battery Safety With Strategies for Early Risk Mitigation"
AME S212 | Zoom link
Abstract: Battery safety is a major challenge for the widespread use of advanced energy storage technologies. Although new chemistries such as solid-state batteries are often expected to be safer than conventional lithium-ion systems, they can introduce different failure pathways and hazards. In this seminar, I will discuss the importance of evaluating battery safety early in development using a combination of calorimetric experiments and mechanistic interpretation across multiple length scales. I will highlight how these approaches can reveal thermal failure mechanisms, identify risks that may be missed by conventional testing methods and support safer design of next-generation battery systems.
Bio: Loraine Torres-Castro is the battery safety lead for vehicle electrification and grid energy storage at Sandia National Laboratories. Her research focuses on battery abuse testing, thermal runaway and the failure mechanisms that lead to safety incidents in energy storage systems. She develops predictive testing methods and mitigation strategies to improve safety at both the cell and system levels, advancing the design of safer battery technologies. Her work is supported through collaborations with federal sponsors including the U.S. Department of Energy, Department of Transportation and NASA. She also authors and maintains the USABC Battery Abuse Testing Manual, a key resource used by automotive manufacturers to evaluate emerging battery technologies.