Applications

Performance Testing

Determine thermal management

• Thermal behavior of cells, modules, and batteries is complex and must be well understood if products are to perform optimally and safely.

• • Inadequate thermal management may result in an unsafe product.
  • Excessive thermal management may result in a product that is unnecessarily bulky, heavy, complex, or expensive to build.
  • Inadequate understanding of thermal behavior may result in the setting of allowed usage conditions that are unsafe.  Alternatively, allowed usage conditions could be set which are overly cautious and place unnecessary limitations on product performance.

Heat release rate (Power) measured in watts and Energy released measured in kilojoules during charge and discharge of a gel cell battery at 40°C

• Data from the iso-BTC+ enables a deeper understanding of battery thermal behavior during:
  • Normal use conditions at various environment temperatures and during various charge/discharge regimes.
  • Abnormal but non-abusive conditions (e.g., mild overcharging).

• iso-BTC+ data enables decision-making in the design of batteries, design of battery thermal management systems, and design of high-performance products.
• iso-BTC+ data is used in thermal propagation modeling to predict the thermal behavior of large high-power batteries with complex geometries.
• The iso-BTC+ supports thermal mapping during testing to identify regions of the battery which generate greater heat. This information can also be utilized to implement targeted thermal management strategies.

Characterize differences in cell performance

• Data from the iso-BTC+ is used by cell and battery developers to assess the impact of chemistry, electrode composition, type of battery cell, and battery age on thermal behavior.  Measurements of heat produced during various charge/discharge regimes are used in simulations to provide deeper product understanding.

  Effect of repeat charge/discharge cycling on energy released from a 16-ampere hour pouch cell. 1C charging results in no or little change in energy release on successive cycles. 0.5C charging (yellow) and 5C discharging (pink) results in increased energy release on successive cycles.

Characterize cells for Quality Control

• iso-BTC+ data on battery efficiency and heat evolved at specific temperatures and charge rates can be used to characterize battery performance as part of a Quality Control process.  This approach is applicable to both cell manufacturers and battery integrators.