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Heat Flux Sensing in Battery Monitoring
The article below is from greenTEG.
Batteries are critical devices for many people today: they power smartphones, laptops, and even cars! The wide adoption of batteries was possible because of the invention of the lithium-ion battery (whose inventors won the Nobel Prize this year). If we look at its results, the Li-Ion battery was surely one of the most important engineering achievements of the last 50 years.
Given its importance, during the past decades, many researchers have been working to better understand how batteries work, as a mean to improve its efficiency and performance.
For that purpose, it is fundamental to correctly monitor the calorimetric performance of batteries, a critical indicator of the phase change of lithium-ion in the battery’s electrodes. Through that, we can figure out the state of charge (SOC), and the state of health (SOH) of any battery.
Hence, it is very important to set up a reliable monitoring system. Using heat flux sensors for that purpose has the advantage of downsizing the measurement device and saving quite a lot of money. It also improves features resolution, reduces the noise level, and has no offset.
Moreover, heat flux sensors combined with external temperature sensors allow measuring the inner temperature of batteries, helping to prevent the thermal runaway of the device.
At greenTEG, we have been helping battery researchers all over the world to monitor batteries with accuracy, efficiency, and at a very reasonable price. If you want more information about this topic, click here to download our latest presentation about this topic.
Fiber Optic Testing Helps Ensure EV Battery Health and Safety
The article below is from Luna Blog
EVs face unique design challenges in order to be competitive with gasoline-powered vehicles. The root of many of these challenges is in the EV battery pack. Drivers want similar vehicle range per charge when compared to a tank of gas, as well as the convenience they are used to with refilling a tank in just a few minutes. This means battery packs need to be able to store enough energy to go comparable distances without stopping and to get back on the road quickly once depleted.
Many EVs today use thousands of lithium ion cells to form the complete battery pack that powers a vehicle. Lithium ion batteries come with certain limits. They do not charge well at very low temperatures, and they can be dangerous if overheated, overcharged, charged too quickly or physically damaged.
The understanding of lithium ion batteries … and by extension their safety is continuously evolving. However, in a system that has thousands of cells packed in close proximity, a defective battery could cause thermal runaway and lead to a chain of violent cell failures. While rare, such an event is of concern in a passenger-filled vehicle that can sustain physical damage, especially one that uses a pack that is charged as quickly as possible.
High Definition Fiber Optic Sensing is a valuable tool for ensuring battery health and driver safety. Sensors are electrically passive, corrosion resistant and immune to EMI, allowing them to make measurements within a battery pack or an individual cell without risking a short circuit or picking up noise from electronics. The temperatures of all battery cells can be monitored during recharge or discharge to quickly look for damaged or faulty cells, which need to be replaced.
One possible future for EVs is detachable battery packs where a car pulls into a recharge station but instead of plugging in and charging its battery, the pack is removed and quickly replaced with a different fully charged pack, leaving the previous one to be charged and stored at the station. Packs would not belong to any individual driver. In this case, fiber could be placed within each pack and then while being recharged at the station, each battery pack could also be scanned to ensure the health of all cells in circulation. This application would grow in importance over time as the average age of battery packs in use rises. This application would allow batteries to charge at a safe rate in climate-controlled environments for an overall increase in battery life.
Sequoia invents Super-Turbidity methodology (Patent Pending)
The article below is from Sequoia Press Release
In a world’s first, Sequoia Scientific, Inc. of Bellevue, WA, USA has invented a method (patent pending) to pair data from a turbidity meter (e.g. an OBS) with Sequoia’s acoustic backscatter sensor, the LISST-ABS. The pairing of the acoustic and the optical data leads to a much-improved estimate of suspended sediment concentration (SSC), compared to the estimate that either sensor can provide on its own. The new methodology allows for measurements of SSC that is within a factor of 2 of the actual value, e.g. based on sampling and subsequent filtration. This is an order of magnitude improvement over currently used technologies.
Sequoia is also introducing a new instrument system based on this technology, the LISST-AOBS Super-Turbidity Meter. All existing LISST-ABS sensors can be expanded to the LISST-AOBS Super-Turbidity Meter. Also, all existing turbidity sensors can be expanded to the LISST-AOBS Super-Turbidity Meter – contact Sequoia for details!
The implications of the new method and the introduction of the LISST-AOBS Super-Turbidity Meter are two-fold:
1) existing regulations (e.g. for stormwater, construction, environmental monitoring) that calls for monitoring of turbidity can be adhered to while
2) the user AT THE SAME TIME can obtain an ACCURATE estimate of SSC.
According to the US EPA, excessive sediment is the leading cause of impairment of the Nation’s waters . High SSC values influence virtually all aspects of aquatic life in a detrimental manner. Accurate measurements of SSC with low-cost sensors that can be deployed for months or years are therefore of importance for a wide range of environmental quality programs, remediation efforts, court cases etc.
The LISST-AOBS Super-Turbidity meter can help provide the data needed to make the decisions that will protect the Nation’s waters.
Link to Press Release on Sequoia website: https://www.sequoiasci.com/
Link to LISST-AOBS product page on Sequoia website:
https://www.sequoiasci.com/
