Active swelling reduction for pouch cells
View Patent ↗An aspect provides a method, including: normally discharging one or more battery cells housed in a flexible exterior material; determining one or more of the one or more battery cells has less than a predetermined voltage level; and actively discharging the one or more battery cells determined to have less than the predetermined voltage. Other aspects are described and claimed.
1. A method, comprising:
normally discharging one or more battery cells housed in a flexible exterior material;
determining one or more of the one or more battery cells has less than a predetermined voltage level; and
actively discharging the one or more battery cells determined to have less than the predetermined voltage wherein the determining one or more battery cells have less than a predetermined voltage level and actively discharging the one or more battery cells determined to have less than the predetermined voltage are performed at least in part using a battery management unit.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the predetermined voltage corresponds to a lower cut off voltage.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of actively discharging further comprises actively discharging the one or more battery cells at a predetermined rate.
4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the predetermined rate comprises a rate of about 0.1 C to 2 C.
5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of actively discharging further comprises discharging the one or more battery cells via connecting the one or more cells to a discharge line having a predetermined resistance.
6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the predetermined resistance comprises a resistance of about 240 Ohms or less.
7. The method of claim 5 , wherein the predetermined resistance comprises a resistance of about 15 Ohms or less.
8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the steps of determining one or more of the one or more battery cells has less than a predetermined voltage level and actively discharging the one or more battery cells determined to have less than the predetermined voltage are performed at least in part using a system processor.
9. A system comprising:
a flexible exterior material containing one or more battery cells;
one or more components deriving power from the one or more battery cells a battery management unit;
one or more processors; and
a memory operatively coupled to the one or more processors that stores instructions executable by the one or more processors to perform acts comprising:
normally discharging the one or more battery cells;
determining one or more of the one or more battery cells have less than a predetermined voltage level; and
actively discharging the one or more battery cells determined to have less than the predetermined voltage wherein the determining the one or more battery cells have less than a predetermined voltage level and actively discharging the one or more battery cells determined to have less than the predetermined voltage are performed at least in part using the battery management unit.
10. The system of claim 9 , wherein the predetermined voltage corresponds to a lower cut off voltage.
11. The system of claim 9 , wherein the act of actively discharging further comprises actively discharging the one or more battery cells at a predetermined rate.
12. The system of claim 11 , wherein the predetermined rate comprises a rate of about 0.1 C to 2 C.
13. The system of claim 9 , wherein the act of actively discharging further comprises discharging the one or more battery cells via connecting the one or more cells to a discharge line having a predetermined resistance.
14. The system of claim 13 , wherein the predetermined resistance comprises a resistance of about 240 Ohms or less.
15. The system of claim 13 , wherein the predetermined resistance comprises a resistance of about 15 Ohms or less.
16. The system of claim 9 , wherein the acts of determining one or more of the one or more battery cells has less than a predetermined voltage level and actively discharging the one or more battery cells determined to have less than the predetermined voltage are performed at least in part using the one or more processors.
17. The system of claim 9 , wherein:
said system comprises an automobile;
said one or more components deriving power from the one or more battery cells comprises an electric motor which propels motion of said automobile; and
said one or more battery cells act to provide power to said electric motor.
18. The system of claim 9 , wherein:
said system comprises a mobile information handling device;
said one or more components deriving power from the one or more battery cells comprise mobile information handling device components; and
said one or more battery cells act to provide power to said one or more components.
19. A program product, comprising:
a non-transitory storage medium having computer program code embodied therewith, the computer program code comprising:
computer program code that normally discharges one or more battery cells housed in a flexible exterior material;
computer program code that determines one or more of the one or more battery cells have less than a predetermined voltage level; and
computer program code to that actively discharges the one or more battery cells determined to have less than the predetermined voltage wherein the computer program code that determines one or more battery cells have less than a predetermined voltage level and the computer program code that actively discharges the one or more battery cells determined to have less than the predetermined voltage are performed at least in part using a battery management unit.