Battery management system for predicting life of a reconfigurable battery pack

• US 10,006,967 B2
• Filed: 10/17/2016
• Issued: 06/26/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 10/16/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: Ganesan, Nandhini, Basu, Suman, Hariharan, Krishnan S, Song, Tae Won
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Tai T
• Application Number:
  US15/295,056
• Publication Number:
  US 20170108553A1
• Time in Patent Office: 617 Days
• Field of Search: 34063619, 34063615, 340660, 340661, 340663, 340438, 320134, 320162
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 31/3646 for indicating electrical conditions or variables, e.g. visual or audible indicators
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 31/367 Software therefor, e.g. for battery testing using modelling or look-up tables
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 31/392 Determining battery ageing or deterioration, e.g. state of health
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 31/396 Acquisition or processing of data for testing or for monitoring individual cells or groups of cells within a battery
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/182 Level alarms, e.g. alarms responsive to variables exceeding a threshold
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 31/00 Predictive alarm systems characterised by extrapolation or other computation using updated historic data
• CPC Class Codes: Y02E 60/10 Energy storage using batteries

Abstract

A method for predicting life of a reconfigurable battery pack, includes receiving a usage parameter of a reconfigurable battery pack, the battery pack comprising interconnected battery cells; identifying a State of Health (SOH) of degraded battery cells and a capacity of the reconfigurable battery pack; and determine a number of fresh battery cells to replace the degraded cells for the usage parameter based on the SOH and the capacity of the reconfigurable battery pack.

Claims

1. A method for predicting life of a reconfigurable battery pack, the method comprising:

identifying a capacity fade of one or more battery cells of a reconfigurable battery pack;

determining a load deviation based on the capacity fade;

calculating a relationship between the load deviation and a threshold; and

detecting an end of life of the reconfigurable battery pack in response to the calculating of the relationship of the load deviation relative to the threshold.

2. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform the method of claim 1.

3. A method for predicting life of a reconfigurable battery pack, the method comprising:

identifying a load deviation of one or more battery cells of a reconfigurable battery pack;

determining a capacity fade of the reconfigurable battery pack based on the load deviation;

calculating a relationship between the capacity fade and a threshold; and

detecting an end of life of the reconfigurable battery pack in response to the calculating of the relationship of the capacity fade relative to the threshold.

4. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform the method of claim 3.

5. A battery management system for predicting life of a reconfigurable battery pack, the battery management system comprising:

a controller configured to;

identify a capacity fade of one or more battery cells of a reconfigurable battery pack;

determine a load deviation based on the capacity fade;

calculate to determine a relationship between the load deviation and a threshold; and

detect an end of life of the reconfigurable battery pack based on the determined relationship between the load deviation and the threshold.

6. The battery management system of claim 5, wherein the controller is further configured to identify either one or both of a State of Health (SOH) of one or more degraded battery cells and a number of battery cells of the reconfigurable battery pack.

7. The battery management system of claim 6, further comprising a SOH determiner coupled to the controller and configured to identify the either one or both of the SOH of the one or more degraded battery cells and the number of battery cells of the reconfigurable battery pack.

8. The battery management system of claim 7, wherein the controller is further configured to report the detected end of life of the reconfigurable battery pack in response to the load deviation approaching, meeting, or exceeding the threshold.

9. The battery management system of claim 8, further comprising a communication circuit coupled to the controller and configured to report the detected end of life of the reconfigurable battery pack in response to the load deviation approaching, meeting, or exceeding the threshold.

10. The battery management system of claim 9, wherein the controller is further configured to actuate the communication circuit to report the detected end of life to any one or any combination of any two or more of a user, a load apparatus coupled to the reconfigurable battery pack, and an external battery management system coupled to the reconfigurable battery pack.

11. The battery management system of claim 10, wherein the communication circuit is further configured to actuate any one or any combination of any two or more of a wired datalink, a wireless datalink, a display, or a speaker to report any one or any combination of two or more of the detected end of life of one or more battery cells, the SOH of one or more battery cells, the number of battery cells, an identification of one or more degraded battery cells, and a recommended number of fresh battery cells to replace the degraded battery cells in the reconfigurable battery pack.

12. A battery management system for predicting life of a reconfigurable battery pack, the battery management system comprising:

a controller configured to;

identify a load deviation of one or more battery cells of a reconfigurable battery pack;

determine a capacity fade based on the load deviation;

determine a relationship between the capacity fade and a threshold; and

report a detected end of life of the reconfigurable battery pack based on the determined relationship between the capacity fade and the threshold.