Completed Research

Preventive Diagnosis in HEV NiMH Battery Pack

Principal investigators:

Pierluigi Pisu, Mechanical Engineering

Graduate student:

Sina Hamzelouia

Sponsor:

BMW

Brief abstract:

This project focused on a data driven approach for the prediction of NiMH battery end-of-life in hybrid electric vehicles during normal driving operations. The specific goals of the project are: a) Establish when the battery pack should be declared at is end-of-life; b) Develop a simple data driven prognostic algorithm capable of predicting the end-of-life of the battery pack for use during normal driving operation of the vehicle, and experimentally validate it.

A battery damage accumulation model was derived using curve fitting of experimental data provided by the Sponsor. The analytical formulation shows the equivalence of the proposed model to the Palmgren-Miner fatigue model for fracture mechanics. The derived model is capable to determine the residual life as function of DOD and Temperature.

The outcomes of this research have the potential to improve battery reliability, monitoring and battery life extension.

Impact:

Automotive Manufacturer of Hybrid Electric Vehicles will greatly benefit from this research that would allow for timely battery preventive maintenance, reducing warranty costs, and improving customer satisfaction.

Publications:

Under work.

Project schedule:

Project starts May 13th , 2009
Report on Literature Research July 1st , 2009
Report on Data Analysis September 1st , 2009
Report on Data Extrapolation October 15th, 2009
End of Project November 30th, 2009
Final Report December 4th , 2009