Systems and methods to determine the condition of a battery

• Main Authors: STREIT JAMES WILLIAM, PISU PIERLUIGI, MOHON SARA, VENHOVENS PAUL
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 23.02.2016
• Subjects: BASIC ELECTRIC ELEMENTS; ELECTRICITY; GENERAL TAGGING OF CROSS-SECTIONAL TECHNOLOGIES SPANNING OVER SEVERAL SECTIONS OF THE IPC; GENERAL TAGGING OF NEW TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS; MEASURING; MEASURING ELECTRIC VARIABLES; MEASURING MAGNETIC VARIABLES; PHYSICS; PROCESSES OR MEANS, e.g. BATTERIES, FOR THE DIRECT CONVERSIONOF CHEMICAL INTO ELECTRICAL ENERGY; TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER US CLASSIFICATION; TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC; TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC CROSS-REFERENCE ART COLLECTIONS [XRACs] AND DIGESTS; TESTING

Systems and methods for determining the damage level of a battery are provided. An exemplary method includes measuring a terminal voltage of the battery over time while discharging the battery at a predetermined current; calculating a slope of a natural logarithm of a rate of change of a first voltage of the battery over time based on the terminal voltage of the battery; and comparing the calculated slope to a threshold slope that is based on measurements of a plurality of similar batteries with known conditions. The first voltage of the battery may correspond to a voltage across an RC component of an equivalent circuit model for the battery.