APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR IDENTIFYING POSITION OF ABNORMALITY HAVING OCCURRED IN SECONDARY BATTERY SYSTEM, AND NON-TRANSITORY RECORDING MEDIUM

• US 20160116545A1
• Filed: 01/07/2016
• Published: 04/28/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 07/11/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: NGK Insulators Limited
• Original Assignee: NGK Insulators Limited
• Inventors: FUKUHARA, Motohiro
• Granted Patent: US 10,451,685 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 19/16542 for batteries charge condition monitoring in G01R31/36
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 31/371 with remote indication, e.g. on external chargers
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 31/3842 combining voltage and current measurements
• 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: H01M 10/4285 Testing apparatus
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 10/48 Accumulators combined with arrangements for measuring, testing or indicating the condition of cells, e.g. the level or density of the electrolyte constructional details of current conducting connections for detecting conditions inside cells or batteries, e.g. details of voltage sensing terminals, H01M50/569
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 10/482 for several batteries or cells simultaneously or sequentially
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 10/488 Cells or batteries combined with indicating means for external visualization of the condition, e.g. by change of colour or of light density
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 2010/4271 Battery management systems including electronic circuits, e.g. control of current or voltage to keep battery in healthy state, cell balancing
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 2010/4278 Systems for data transfer from batteries, e.g. transfer of battery parameters to a controller, data transferred between battery controller and main controller
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/0013 acting upon several batteries simultaneously or sequentially H02J7/1423 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/0029 with safety or protection devices or circuits
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/0048 Detection of remaining charge capacity or state of charge [SOC]
• CPC Class Codes: Y02E 60/10 Energy storage using batteries

Abstract

A voltage measurement unit for detecting voltage of secondary battery cells on a block by block basis, and outputting the detected voltage as block voltage, an information acquisition unit for acquiring information about a module among a plurality of modules that accommodates a block where a difference between the block voltage and a corresponding block voltage with a first order lag has been changed to exceed a predetermined voltage value, a notification reception unit for receiving a notification of an abnormality having occurred in the secondary battery cells, and a module identification unit for identifying a module corresponding to the information about the module, as a module having the abnormality at the time of receiving the notification by the notification reception unit, are provided.

Claims

1. An apparatus for identifying a position of an abnormality having occurred in a secondary battery system including a plurality of modules each formed by accommodating one or more blocks in a casing, the blocks each being formed by connecting two or more secondary battery cells, the apparatus comprising:

a voltage measurement unit configured to detect voltage of the secondary battery cells on a block by block basis, and output the detected voltage as block voltage;

an information acquisition unit configured to acquire information about a module among the modules that accommodates a block where a difference between the block voltage and a corresponding block voltage with a first order lag has been changed to exceed a predetermined voltage threshold value;

a notification reception unit configured to receive a notification of an abnormality having occurred in the secondary battery cells; and

a module identification unit configured to identify a module corresponding to the information about the module, as a module having the abnormality, at time of receiving the notification by the notification reception unit.

2. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a time constant of the first order lag is selected depending on behavior where the block voltage drops temporarily due to short circuiting of at least one of the battery cells.

3. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein, as the voltage threshold value, a voltage value by which the block voltage temporarily drops due to short circuiting of at least one of the battery cells is selected.

4. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a current measurement unit configured to measure electric current of a module string formed by connecting the plurality of modules in series,

wherein, from among information about the modules included in the module string, the information acquisition unit acquires information about a module that accommodates a block where the difference between the block voltage and the corresponding block voltage with the first order lag has been changed to exceed the voltage threshold value within a predetermined time period around a time point at which a difference between a present current measurement value and a previous current measurement value of the module string exceeds a predetermined current threshold value.

5. The apparatus according to claim 4, wherein as the current threshold value, a current variation range which occurs when the block voltage drops due to short circuiting of at least one of the battery cells is selected.

6. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising an error output unit configured to receive the information about the module from the information acquisition unit, and output the information about the module together with an error message.

7. A method of identifying a position of an abnormality having occurred in a secondary battery system including a plurality of modules each formed by accommodating one or more blocks in a casing, the blocks each being formed by connecting two or more secondary battery cells, the method comprising:

a voltage measurement step of detecting voltage of the secondary battery cells on a block by block basis, and outputting the detected voltage as block voltage;

an information acquisition step of acquiring information about a module among the modules that accommodates a block where a difference between the block voltage and a corresponding block voltage with a first order lag has been changed to exceed a predetermined voltage threshold value;

a notification reception step of receiving a notification of an abnormality having occurred in the secondary battery cells; and

a module identification step of identifying a module corresponding to the information about the module, as a module having the abnormality, at time of receiving the notification in the notification reception step.

8. The method according to claim 7, wherein a time constant of the first order lag is selected depending on behavior where the block voltage drops temporarily due to short circuiting of at least one of the battery cells.

9. The method according to claim 7, wherein, as the voltage threshold value, a voltage value by which the block voltage temporarily drops due to short circuiting of at least one of the battery cells is selected.

10. The method according to claim 7, further comprising a current measurement step of measuring electric current of a module string formed by connecting the plurality of modules in series,

wherein in the information acquisition step, from among information about the modules included in the module string, information about a module that accommodates a block where the difference between the block voltage and the corresponding block voltage with the first order lag has been changed to exceed the voltage threshold value within a predetermined time period around a time point at which a difference between a present current measurement value and a previous current measurement value of the module string exceeds a predetermined current threshold value is acquired.

11. The method according to claim 10, wherein as the current threshold value, a current variation range which occurs when the block voltage drops due to short circuiting of at least one of the battery cells is selected.

12. The method to claim 7, further comprising an error output step of outputting the information about the module acquired in the information acquisition step together with an error message.

13. A non-transitory recording medium storing a program for a secondary battery system including a plurality of modules each formed by accommodating one or more blocks in a casing, the blocks each being formed by connecting two or more secondary battery cells, and a voltage measurement unit configured to detect voltage of the secondary battery cells on a block by block basis, and output the detected voltage as block voltage, the program being configured to enable the secondary battery system to function as:

an information acquisition unit configured to acquire information about a module among the modules that accommodates a block where a difference between the block voltage and a corresponding block voltage with a first order lag has been changed to exceed a predetermined voltage threshold value;

a notification reception unit configured to receive a notification of occurrence of an abnormality in the secondary battery cells; and

a module identification unit configured to identify a module corresponding to the information about the module, as a module having the abnormality, at time of receiving the notification by the notification reception unit.