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Lithium Battery Early Warning Fault Indication System
Navy SBIR 2016.1 - Topic N161-047 NAVSEA - Mr. Dean Putnam - dean.r.putnam@navy.mil Opens: January 11, 2016 - Closes: February 17, 2016 N161-047 TITLE: Lithium Battery Early Warning Fault Indication System TECHNOLOGY AREA(S): Battlespace, Electronics, Sensors ACQUISITION PROGRAM: PMS394, Advanced Undersea Systems Program Office OBJECTIVE: Develop an innovative early warning battery fault indication system with low energy input and a target volume of 125 cm^3 for sensors and electronics. DESCRIPTION: A fault in current Navy used lithium (primary and secondary) batteries can occur for various reasons such as overcharge, impact, manufacturing issues, or latent defect. When a fault occurs, the battery can release toxic and flammable gases which can start and feed a fire or cause significant equipment damage and present catastrophic hazards to personnel safety. Testing has shown that early signals of a battery issue can occur internally. If detected early, the system can provide valuable warnings of single or multiple cell issues before they evolve into bigger and more hazardous issues. The early signals will indicate the presence of smoke and particulates, light, heat and sound emission, pressure increase, and an increase in Volatile Organic Contaminants (VOC) over a known baseline level for the application (the free floodable volume of a sealed pressure vessel or Unmanned Underwater Vehicle (UUV)) (Ref. 1 through 4). The early warning signals would provide operators time to complete required preventive and corrective actions to ensure personnel and platform safety. The UUVs as identified in References 1 through 3 have no early warning system integrated into its battery design or battery enclosure with these characteristics. A single cell fault or failure may go undetected until it has propagated out of control and causes visual indications of a battery event external to battery enclosure. At that point, it is too late and does not allow sufficient time to stop propagation effectively and satisfactorily protect personnel, equipment and the platform from toxicity and flammability and explosion hazards, causing irreparable damage. The battery fault early warning system shall be comprised of sensing device(s) that can identify smoke and particulate, light, heat and sound emissions, pressure and VOC variations or other clearly identifiable precursors for incremental and sudden battery failure. When detected, the device will cause an alarm to be seen and heard from a remote wired or wireless alarm panel. The battery fault early warning system shall not cause modification to the battery design. Use of existing battery enclosure penetrations will be required (such as underwater pressure feedthroughs). The system components shall be packaged with all remote sensors communicating to a single unit, which will provide alarm indication. System shall have the capability to interface with vehicle controller using standard communication protocols (i.e., Ethernet, etc.). The sensing device(s) shall be compact and adaptable to a circuit card or embeddable assembly within an enclosure and require a low amount of power to operate. The threshold space, weight, and power requirement is 400 cm3, 1kg, 25 watts and the objective is 200 cm3, 550 grams, 5 watts. Operation may be self-powered or externally powered via an adaptor to the external feedthroughs. The device shall be configured such that it can monitor and detect a single cell event inside the battery enclosure (Ref. 1 through 4 is an example of a "target application battery enclosure" - REMUS 600 development). In order to minimize false alarms, the system shall rely on double fault detection. The smoke and particulate sensor could be an optical sensor or could borrow from commercial electronic nose "sniffer" technology (such as photo-ionization detectors or mass-spectrometer-on-a-chip systems). However, to be compliant with existing Navy safety standards and minimize approval requirements, sensors utilizing radiation sources shall not be utilized. The VOC sensor shall not use oxygen dependent detector as that could itself cause a battery event. The detector assembly shall not be a source of flammable gas ignition with respect to explosive atmosphere conditions. The system shall not trigger on any single low-level event. The system shall trigger on any single high-level event and will implement data fusion to support a combination of several low-level events as indicators of possible developing issues. The ability for each sensor to accurately detect what it is designed to detect shall be demonstrated and tested by the developer and an independent Navy lab with a Navy approved test plan. The VOC sensor shall be accurate to detect and report concentrations of organic vapors from 5 to 20000 parts per million (PPM) within +/- 1 ppm. The fault sensing technology shall take advantage of Commercial-Off-the-Shelf technology as applicable. The system shall be ruggedized in order to withstand worst-case environments inside the battery enclosure (thermal flux, pressure, corrosives) for the period before a battery event becomes catastrophic and affects the surrounding area outside of the battery enclosure. The detector must be capable of functioning and meeting Grade A characterization after exposure to MIL-S-901D shock impacts. The system shall be able to provide both audible (> 80 dB) and visual indications on a wired or wireless remote indicator panel. The panel does not have to be another company designed device and could instead be a cell phone or computer software application. If wireless technology is used, it shall not affect the battery operation, shall not provide electromagnetic interference (EMI), and shall be tested to meet MIL-STD-461 requirements. If a software application is used, it shall meet the requirements of MIL-STD-882E and Joint Software Systems Safety Engineering Handbook for design and testing of Navy safety critical software. Sufficient redundancy shall be present in the system so that if the power is lost, other power options are available, or if a sensor fails, the system can still function to monitor for a single battery cell fault. System maintenance shall be limited to routine calibration and/or replacement as needed. The final system shall provide operators with real-time audio and visual feedback of cell and battery faults that may lead to a battery casualty and failure, with the release of heat, toxic products, and local high-pressures or flammable gases (thermal runaway of either primary or rechargeable chemistries posing hazards to personnel and local environments). The use of sensor fusion from multiple detectors examining characteristic precursors and emissions will increase the pre-event detection with a decrease in false negative alerts. This system will reduce maintenance cost by 20% and provide safety to prevent catastrophic failure. PHASE I: During Phase I, the company must provide a concept to solve the Navy’s problem of being able to sense lithium battery fault indications from within a battery module and send an alarm indication of their presence to a wired or wireless remote monitoring panel. The company must demonstrate the feasibility of the Lithium Battery Early Warning Fault Indication System concept by testing and showing that each sensor can accurately detect what it was designed to detect when exposed to repeated simulated ambient battery environmental conditions. The Phase I Option, if awarded should include the initial layout and capabilities description to build the unit in Phase II. PHASE II: Based on the results of Phase I and the Phase II Statement of Work (SOW), the company will develop a prototype of the Lithium Battery Early Warning Fault Indication System unit and demonstrate that it can fit in the target size and power envelope as identified in the description above. The company will integrate the sensing technology from Phase I into a real battery design prototype, which will be furnished by the Government. The battery will undergo repeated normal charge and discharge cycles. The sensors will be tested either on or once removed from the battery module. The testing will demonstrate that each sensor can still accurately detect what it is designed to detect when exposed to repeated real battery charge or discharge environmental conditions. False positives and false negative results shall be tracked over the entire testing period. Phase II test data shall show that alarm visual and audible indications, which correspond to the detected presence of smoke/particulate, light, heat and sound emission, and VOC and pressure increases were provided on a remote indicating panel (cell phone, computer or separate panel). Use of Government safety certified battery test facilities are available to the company. Successful exit from Phase II will include a transition plan for entry into the Acquisition Program to be executed as part of Phase III. PHASE III DUAL USE APPLICATIONS: The company will support the Navy in transitioning the Lithium Battery Early Warning Fault Indication System technology to Advanced Undersea Systems use. The company will provide on-site technical assistance and assist in the development of logistical technical data. This data is used to install and operationally test the company’s technology solution. A standard operational test shall validate that after the battery is installed that the system is on-line and can accurately detect battery faults. A production strategy shall be developed by the company to show that Navy’s production needs can be met. This technology is used in commercial industry to monitor security indications, for example smoke/fire detector, breach of entry signals from cameras, or sensors that all tie back to a hard panel and remote alarm panel via cell phone or computer technology to alert the user. REFERENCES: 1. Forrester, Ned C. "AUV Li-Ion Battery Systems - Battery module and controller used in the Tunnel Inspection Vehicle, and in the REMUS-600 vehicle. (Ned Forrester)" http://www.whoi.edu/hpb/viewImage.do?id=7275&ppid=2113&sid=1532&isProj=1 2. Forrester, Ned C. "AUV Li-Ion Battery Systems - 5.5 kWh battery tray for REMUS-600 (12.75 inch diameter) vehicle. (Ned Forrester)" http://www.whoi.edu/hpb/viewImage.do?id=7279&ppid=2113&sid=1532&isProj=1 3. Autonomous Undersea Vehicle Application Center (AUVAC). REMUS 600 Configuration. Copyright 2015. http://auvac.org/configurations/view/39?from_search=1 4. Moline, M., Blackwell, S., von Alt, C., Allen, B., Austin, T., Case, J., Forrester, N., Goldsborough, R., Purcell, M., Stokey, R., "Remote Environmental Monitoring UnitS (REMUS): An Autonomous Vehicle for Characterizing Coastal Environments", Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology, pp. 1797-1808, Nov. 2005. KEYWORDS: Lithium battery; lithium battery fault detection; early warning system; battery fault detector, battery fault detection unit; visual feedback of cell and battery faults TPOC-1: Emily Donowick Phone: 202-781-7329 Email: emily.donowick@navy.mil TPOC-2: Robert Goergens Phone: 202-781-7390 Email: robert.goergens@navy.mil Questions may also be submitted through DoD SBIR/STTR SITIS website.
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