Battery Insulation Resistance Measurement Methods, Insulation Resistance Measurement Methods, Insulation Resistance Determination Apparatuses, And Articles Of Manufacture

• US 20110115490A1
• Filed: 11/19/2009
• Published: 05/19/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 11/19/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Lithion Battery Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Valence Technology Incorporated (Lithium Werks B.V.)
• Inventors: Klijn, Aaron
• Granted Patent: US 8,421,467 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 324/430
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 27/025 Measuring very high resistances, e.g. isolation resistances, i.e. megohm-meters
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 27/18 Measuring resistance to earth , i.e. line to ground
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 31/382 Arrangements for monitoring battery or accumulator variables, e.g. SoC
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 31/3835 involving only voltage measurements
• CPC Class Codes: Y02E 60/10 Energy storage using batteries

Abstract

Battery insulation resistance measurement methods, insulation resistance measurement methods, insulation resistance determination apparatuses, and articles of manufacture are described. According to one aspect, a battery insulation resistance measurement method includes determining a voltage of a battery, determining a voltage of a first terminal of the battery with respect to a ground reference, determining a voltage of a second terminal of the battery with respect to the ground reference, and using the voltages of the battery, the first terminal and the second terminal, determining an insulation resistance of the battery with respect to the ground reference.

Claims

1. A battery insulation resistance measurement method comprising:

determining a voltage of a battery;

determining a voltage of a first terminal of the battery with respect to a ground reference;

determining a voltage of a second terminal of the battery with respect to the ground reference; and

using the voltages of the battery, the first terminal and the second terminal, determining an insulation resistance of the battery with respect to the ground reference.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the determining the voltage of the battery comprises summing voltages of respective ones of the first and second terminals of the battery with respect to the ground reference.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the determining the voltage of the first terminal comprises determining with a known resistance coupled with the second terminal and the ground reference and the determining the voltage of the second terminal comprises determining with a known resistance coupled with the first terminal and the ground reference.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein the determining the insulation resistance further comprises determining using the known resistance.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the determining the insulation resistance of the battery comprises determining the insulation resistance of at least one of the first and second terminals with respect to the ground reference.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein the determining the insulation resistance of the at least one of the first and second terminals comprises determining using the voltages of the battery, the first terminal and the second terminal.

7. The method of claim 5 wherein the determining the insulation resistance comprises determining the insulation resistance of each of the first and second terminals with respect to the ground reference.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the determining the insulation resistance further comprises determining the parallel equivalent resistance of the insulation resistances of the first and second terminals with respect to the ground reference.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein all of the determinings comprise determinings using processing circuitry.

10. An insulation resistance measurement method comprising:

determining a voltage of a first terminal of a battery with respect to a ground reference vehicle with a known resistance coupled between a second terminal of the battery and a ground reference;

determining a voltage of a second terminal of the battery with respect to the ground reference with a known resistance coupled between the first terminal of the battery and the ground reference; and

using the voltages of the first terminal and the second terminal, determining an insulation resistance of the battery with respect to the ground reference.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein the determining the insulation resistance further comprises determining using a voltage of the battery.

12. An insulation resistance measurement method comprising:

determining an insulation resistance of a first terminal of a battery with respect to a ground reference;

determining an insulation resistance of a second terminal of the battery with respect to the ground reference; and

using the insulation resistances of the first and second terminals of the battery with respect to the ground reference, determining an insulation resistance of the battery with respect to the ground reference.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein the determining the insulation resistance of the battery comprises determining the parallel equivalent resistance of the insulation resistances of the first and second terminals with respect to the ground reference.

14. An insulation resistance determination apparatus comprising:

processing circuitry configured to access a voltage of a battery with respect to a ground reference, to access a voltage of a first terminal of the battery with respect to the ground reference, to access a voltage of a second terminal of the battery with respect to the ground reference, and to determine an insulation resistance of the first terminal with respect to the ground reference using the voltage of the battery with respect to the ground reference, the voltage of the first terminal of the battery with respect to the ground reference, and the voltage of the second terminal of the battery with respect to the ground reference.

15. The apparatus of claim 14 wherein the processing circuitry is configured to determine an insulation resistance of the second terminal with respect to the ground reference.

16. The apparatus of claim 15 wherein the processing circuitry is configured to determine an insulation resistance of the battery with respect to the ground reference using the insulation resistances of the first and second terminals.

17. The apparatus of claim 16 wherein the processing circuitry is configured to determine the insulation resistance of the battery comprising the parallel equivalent resistance of the insulation resistances of the first and second terminals.

18. The apparatus of claim 14 wherein the processing circuitry is configured to sum voltages of the first and second terminals of the battery with respect to the ground reference to access the voltage of the battery.

19. The apparatus of claim 14 wherein the processing circuitry is configured to access the voltage of the first terminal with a known resistance coupled with the second terminal and the ground reference and to access the voltage of the second terminal with a known resistance coupled with the first terminal and the ground reference.

20. The apparatus of claim 19 wherein the processing circuitry is configured to use the known resistance to determine the insulation resistance.

21. The apparatus of claim 14 further comprising known resistance circuitry coupled configured to couple a known resistance with the first terminal during the accessing of the voltage of the second terminal and to couple a known resistance with the second terminal during the accessing of the voltage of the first terminal.

22. The apparatus of claim 14 wherein the processing circuitry comprises processing circuitry of a vehicle, and the processing circuitry is configured to determine the insulation resistance of the first terminal with respect to the ground reference comprising chassis ground of the vehicle.

23. An article of manufacture comprising:

media comprising programming configured to cause processing circuitry to perform processing comprising;

determine a first voltage of a first terminal;

determine a first voltage of a second terminal;

determine a voltage of the battery using the first voltages of the first and second terminals;

determine a second voltage of the first terminal with a resistance coupled with the second terminal;

determine a second voltage of the second terminal with the resistance coupled with the first terminal; and

determine an insulation resistance of the battery using the voltage of the battery and the second voltages of the first and second terminals.

24. The article of claim 23 wherein the determining the voltage of the battery comprises summing the first voltages of the first and second terminals.

25. The article of claim 23 wherein the processing circuitry comprises processing circuitry of a vehicle, and the determining the first and second voltages and the insulation resistance comprises determining the first and second voltages and the insulation resistance with respect to a ground reference comprising chassis ground of the vehicle.

26. The article of claim 23 wherein the determining the insulation resistance comprises determining the insulation resistance for at least one of the first and the second terminals.

27. The article of claim 26 wherein the determining the insulation resistance comprises determining the insulation resistance for both of the first and the second terminals.

28. The article of claim 27 wherein the determining the insulation resistance comprises determining the insulation resistance of the battery using the insulation resistances of the first and second terminals.