Battery Pack Contact Break Detection Using Cell Voltage Trends
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing methods for detecting contact breaks in battery packs, such as those due to poor welds or manufacturing defects, are inadequate as they lack cell-level monitoring, leading to safety concerns like overheating.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a system that monitors battery packs using moving average and normalization schemes to detect voltage changes, calculating values like (V-MV), (dV/dt), (dMV/dt), and (V/MV), and identifying contact breaks based on predetermined thresholds.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If traditional battery pack monitoring methods are used, then the system complexity is low, but the ability to detect contact breaks is insufficient
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides the battery pack monitoring into cell-level measurements, where each cell's voltage is individually monitored. This segmentation enables detection of contact breaks in specific cells or groups of cells connected in parallel, rather than monitoring the entire battery pack as a single unit. The segmentation of monitoring granularity directly improves detection capability while managing system complexity through modular measurement approaches.
2Measurement precision
If cell-level monitoring is implemented, then contact break detection capability is improved, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces intermediary computational parameters (dV/dt, d2V/dt2, normalized voltage differences) that mediate between raw cell-level voltage measurements and contact break detection. These intermediary calculations process the cell-level data to highlight anomalies indicative of contact breaks, enabling precise detection while managing device complexity through mathematical processing rather than additional hardware sensors.
3Reliability
If real-time voltage monitoring is performed, then safety response time is improved, but the energy consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements periodic voltage sampling at defined intervals rather than continuous monitoring. This periodic measurement approach, combined with derivative calculations (dV/dt, d2V/dt2) that detect rapid changes, enables timely safety responses to contact breaks while reducing energy consumption compared to continuous real-time monitoring. The system balances safety response requirements with energy efficiency through intelligent sampling strategies.
Data Source
AI summary
The present technology is directed to methods and systems for detecting a contact break in a battery pack. In some embodiments, the method includes, for example, (i) receiving information regarding a current voltage value of a battery pack; (ii) providing information regarding a mean voltage value of the battery pack; (iii) determining a calculated value based on the current voltage value of the battery pack and the mean voltage value of the battery pack; and (iv) identifying a contact break of the battery pack based on the calculated value.