Versions Compared

Key

  • This line was added.
  • This line was removed.
  • Formatting was changed.

...

  • theoretically 16% outliers on either side of the normal distribution for cells for testing (normal distribution characteristics)

  • have to check the cells within 6 months to make sure none of the outliers are deficient

  • put the outliers in a separate isolated container

  • Some people will just get rid of reflow ovens - keep track of industry

  • Dan was a battery guy at Missouri

    • Won with lead acid batteries in the age of NiMH and NiCd

  • Push for 1000 miles of testing!!!

  • GM EV1

    • Steve designed the motor and gear train and battery

    • All cars were destroyed - protect liability

  • Michigan has both Ford and GM as sponsorships

    • Sponsor with the engineers

  • ‘Tesla can’t get along without active balancing or sorting'

  • Getting air through the cells

    • Airstream such that the cross secitonal area grows as it travels along

    • Distributed airflow via perfboard (distribution method)

    • Maintain flow in the battery pack

    • You know the heat in the cells - that will dictate the amount of air through the cells.

    • How much heat can you get into the air?

  • Conical washers - make sure to use them

    • Not enough length of bolt to cause stretch in the bolt

    • Busbar heats up and cools down - relaxes the pressure over time

  • Post-assembly thermal test on the connection methods

    • IR camera, etc.

    • Steve is a bit worried about the stainless for the material flow

  • Need to have SoC (voltage) for each of the supplemental

  • can have self powered sensor if it is not driving the car in any way

    • Don’t want 40 sensors and no supplemental

    • WSC does not allow any supplementals

  • Teams that have tried to modify Tritiums have caused Tritium problems…

    • Western Michigan has used Tritiums for quite some time

  • Lengths can be pretty estimated for wiring diagram because small changes can happen on the fly

    • maybe have an extra foot of wire

    • label wire on either ends of the interconnects

  • Abrasion failures - suspension-caused

    • motor sense leads

    • Power leads

    • Pigtails and such to the array - pulling contact sense off the arrays

    • ALWAYS RESTRAIN WIRES - EVERY PIECE

      • Holds up in weather and heat

      • addition to wiring diagram

Feb 25

Question 1: What are the areas of innovation in battery technology?

  • Energy capacity is going up

  • Anyone that does balancing is wasting energy …?

    • Weaker cell limits the pack

Question 2: How do people enter this field

  • industry is going leaps and bounds

  • ???

Question 3: What kind of skills needed to be better with battery technology?

  • Have to understand characterization of batteries

    • So a bunch of chemical knowledge of cells and their energy capacity and how that affects electricity

  • BatteryUniversity - website for learning stuff about batteries

    • compendium for battery knowledge

Question 4: In your experience doing inspections, common problems seen with solar cars?

  • Checks regulations to use

  • Teams usually forget:

    • Power labels on switch and driver compartment

    • Labels on emergency switch

  • More extreme problems:

    • Teams don’t have an isolated car

    • Dynamic braking