SECTION TITLE
AUTOMOTIVE DESIGN
BATTERY BASICS
Testing and quality control in automotive engineering: Taking a look at the battery test landscape
W
hen designing a battery, engineers must think at cell, module, battery management system (BMS) and pack level.
However, they must also consider vital electrical, thermal, mechanical, control and safety elements. Nigel Taylor, Founder of
BatteryDesign.Net – an educational website providing knowledge, information and ideas on battery design – shared his key considerations for battery design, testing and quality control at Advanced Engineering in Birmingham.
KNOW YOUR PRODUCT REQUIREMENTS Tere are many considerations to take into account when embarking upon the design of a new battery – how many cells are needed, how will they be connected together, what energy and power density will be required, and so on. When starting a project, it is vital to understand exactly what outcomes you are trying to achieve. “Te same as any system you design,
you need to know exactly what your product requirements are,” says Taylor. “When developing a battery pack, you need to start with some format requirements, and if you can’t write them down at the beginning you’re really going to struggle to design anything. Look
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backwards through the actual design chain – start at the end and work out what you can pull to the front of the system design process in terms of generating data and validation.”
CELL CHEMISTRY Te main chemistry currently used in batteries is lithium-ion, however there are many variations on this. Te cathode is a lithium transition metal oxide, such as manganese, cobalt, or a combination of transitional metals. Te anode is normally a graphite-based material which can
intercalate or release lithium. Te design and engineering of a cell, meanwhile, is a complex systems approach that requires numerous specialists. As a battery pack designer, it is important to understand the cell in detail so that you can optimally interface with it in terms of mechanical, electrical and thermal design. “When we put battery packs together,
we have to place a large number of cells in parallel in order to get to a certain voltage and energy density that we need,” Taylor explains. “A battery pack is as strong as its weakest cell, and so you need to take into
BMS breakdown. Image via
BatteryDesign.Net
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