Battery control device

• US 20030042866A1
• Filed: 08/30/2002
• Published: 03/06/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 08/31/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation), Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha (Toyota Motor Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation), Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha (Toyota Motor Corporation)
• Inventors: Nakanishi, Toshiaki, Minamiura, Keiichi
• Granted Patent: US 6,812,670 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 320/104
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 50/61 by batteries charged by engine-driven generators, e.g. series hybrid electric vehicles
• 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: H02J 7/0013 acting upon several batteries simultaneously or sequentially H02J7/1423 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/00302 Overcharge protection
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/00306 Overdischarge protection
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/62 Hybrid vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/70 Energy storage systems for electromobility, e.g. batteries
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/7072 Electromobility specific charging systems or methods for batteries, ultracapacitors, supercapacitors or double-layer capacitors

Abstract

The present invention provides a battery control device for controlling charging and discharging operations performed on a battery pack in which a plurality of serially-connected battery blocks each include a plurality of battery cells, and the device includes: a voltage measurement section for measuring a battery voltage value for each voltage detection unit determined according to a prescribed condition based on at least one battery characteristic; and an abnormal battery detection section for detecting an abnormal battery based on the battery voltage value measured by the voltage measurement section.

Claims

1. A battery control device for controlling charging and discharging operations performed on a battery pack in which a plurality of serially-connected battery blocks each include a plurality of battery cells, the device comprising:

a voltage measurement section for measuring a battery voltage value for each voltage detection unit determined according to a prescribed condition based on at least one battery characteristic; and

an abnormal battery detection section for detecting an abnormal battery based on the battery voltage value measured by the voltage measurement section.

2. A battery control device according to claim 1, wherein the prescribed condition based on the at least one battery characteristic is at least any one of unevenness in internal resistance, precision in battery voltage measured by the voltage measurement section, and the number of battery cells sharing an internal space in each battery case.

3. A battery control device according to claim 1, wherein the number N of the battery cells in each voltage detection unit is determined according to any one of the following conditions (1) through (6):

Max (|I1|, |I2|)×

2Δ

R0×

N<

Valm, 

 

(1)

where I1 denotes current input to a battery cell (I1≠

0), I2 denotes current output from the battery cell (I2≠

0), N denotes a positive integer, a range of abnormal detection current of a battery is I1 to I2 (|I1|≧

|I2|) (ampere), unevenness in internal resistance of a battery cell is ±

Δ

R0 (ohm), and a voltage value per battery cell determined by battery characteristics is Valm (volt);

(2) I2 denotes discharge current and Valm denotes electric potential at which hydrogen is generated from a battery electrolyte according to condition (1);

(3) both I1 and I2 denote current values in the vicinity of zero, and Valm denotes an open-circuit voltage of the battery cell;

(4) a voltage detection unit N obtained according to condition (1) is multiplied by the precision, ±

Δ

Vacy (%), of a voltage detection unit system, such that

Max (|I1|, |I2|)×

2Δ

R0×

2 Δ

Vacy×

N<

Valm;

Max (|I1|, |I2|)×

2Δ

R0×

N<

Ralm×

Max (|I1|, |I2|);

 

 

(5)

 

where I1 denotes current input to a battery (I1≠

0), I2 denotes current output from a battery (I2≠

0), N denotes a positive integer, a range of abnormal detection current of a battery is I1 to I2 (|I1|≧

|I2|) (ampere), unevenness in internal resistance of a battery cell is ±

Δ

R0 (ohm), and internal resistance per battery cell determined by battery characteristics is Ralm (ohm); and

(6) in a battery pack including battery blocks having space-sharing structure between battery cells,

N0≧

N≧

A×

N0,

 

where the number of space-sharing battery cells is A (A is a positive integer), and N determined according to the conditions (1)-(5) is N0.