Development of a long cycle life sealed nickel-zinc battery forhigh energy-density applications

Nickel-zinc battery technology is being developed for commercial applications requiring high energy density and high power capability. Development cells have demonstrated the ability to deliver over 60 Watt-hours per kilogram at the one hour rate. Cycle life has been improved to more than 600 cycles at 80% depth of discharge by using a patented, reduced solubility zinc electrode and an improved sealed cell design. More than 8000 charge/discharge cycles at 10% depth-of-discharge have been completed. Large quantities of sealed prismatic cells have been manufactured, including a 140 cell, 220 V battery for a hybrid electric vehicle (HEV)     

Large lithium ion batteries for aerospace and aircraft applications

Eagle-Picher Energy Products (EPEP) has been manufacturing and testing large lithium ion cells (up to 100-Ah) for several years. Recently, work has focused on the testing of different chemistries at variable temperatures and designing and fabricating 100-Ah cylindrical cells. For the aircraft application the largest concern is irreversible capacity loss at elevated temperatures (70°C). In contrast, for the aerospace application shelf-life and cycle life are critical. EPEP has found that the major contributor to the loss in low temperature performance due to high temperature testing, was the positive electrode. EPEP discuss recent results of variable temperature cycling and 100-Ah cell performance     

气隙构型对高频交流SDBD防除冰激励器的温升影响

等离子体激励具有电离效应、气动效应和热效应,可被用于飞行器防除冰。背面电极的气隙构型对于交流供电的沿面介质阻挡放电（SDBD）防除冰激励器的单周期放电次数和放电电荷分布均有影响,电源频率也为影响激励器温升的重要因素。目前对于交流SDBD温升效果的研究均是基于背面电极无气隙的构型,且缺乏激励频率大于15 kHz的高频条件。为此制作了背面电极有气隙和无气隙的对照构型,在35~55 kHz的高频范围内,采用电学特性、红外测温、放电形态相结合的方式研究了交流SDBD防除冰激励器温升特性。结果表明：施加相同的电压或频率时,背面电极有气隙构型的SDBD激励器的裸露正面最高温度相比无气隙构型激励器可提高至151.51%;背面电极气隙的存在也可以使激励器正面尤其是正面等离子放电反方向的温升区域扩大;增加频率使交流SDBD激励器的温度非线性提高,有助于降低高压击穿风险。     

Sealed nickel cadmium and nickel metal hydride cell advances

Nickel cadmium cells have almost doubled in capacity since 1980 after being stagnated in performance for twenty years. Nickel metal hydride cells, introduced in 1992, have shown a 170 percent increase in energy density to be competitive on a volume basis with lithium ion. Other characteristics, such as charge retention, charge rate, high temperature operation, and rate capability have also advanced with improvements in materials and constructions. These two cell types account for roughly one half of the value of the small secondary battery market     

Lithium-ion cell performance under environmental extremes

High energy density, lithium secondary cells are very attractive for use in many future military applications. However, a number of technical challenges remain. Specifically, the development and qualification of a system capable of withstanding the harsh environmental conditions encountered during normal and abnormal zones of operation. This paper focuses on the environmental extremes that the Eagle-Picher lithium-ion system has tested to date. Emphasis is placed on low temperature performance, high temperature performance, power capability, and cycle life at these extremes. Other areas including safety and environmental issues have also been investigated     

Electric car progress

Our global temperature's rise is caused by our atmosphere's ever-increasing content of carbon-dioxide, most of which comes from the exhaust of transportation vehicles. This has resulted in a worldwide search for alternatives to the high-powered gasoline fueled automobiles in wide use today. Replacing gasoline-powered cars with electric and hybrid-electric vehicles has become the most popular tool for reducing carbon-dioxide emissions into our atmosphere. Evaluation of electric alternatives to gasoline-engine propulsion of cars covers such topics as the efficiency, weight, and lifetime of fuel cells, and increasing the charge/discharge life of the new lightweight lithium and nickel metal-hydride batteries. A summary of the work currently being carried out on battery and hybrid vehicles is included here     

脉冲等离子体推力器火花塞的性能实验

点火回路引燃脉冲等离子体推力器的主电容放电,是推力器的关键部分之一,其性能直接影响到推力器运行的成败。实验设计了脉冲等离子体推力器的点火电路和同轴型、钩型、平行电极型三种结构的火花塞。在此基础上,获得了三种火花塞的充电电压、放电电流及点火情况。结果显示,平行电极型的点火效果最佳。最后分析了三种火花塞的点火机理,获得了较好放电性能的火花塞结构形式,为脉冲等离子体推力器的稳定运行提供了重要的依据。     

Advanced lithium ion battery charger

A lithium ion battery charger has been developed for four and eight cell batteries or multiples thereof. This charger has the advantage over those using commercial lithium ion charging chips in that the individual cells are allowed to be taper charged at their upper charging voltage rather than be cutoff when all cells of the string have reached the upper charging voltage limit. Since 30-60% of the capacity of lithium ion cells may be restored during the taper charge, this charger has a distinct benefit of fully charging lithium ion batteries by restoring all of the available capacity to all of its cells     

Lithium micro-battery development at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Recent successes in the effort to miniaturize spacecraft components using MEMS technology, integrated passive components, and low power electronics have driven the need for very low power, low profile, low mass micro-power sources for micro/nanospacecraft applications. Recent work at JPL has focused upon developing thin film/micro-batteries compatible with temperature sensitive substrates. A process to prepare crystalline LiCoO₂ films with RF sputtering and moderate (<700°C) annealing temperature has been developed. Thin film batteries with cathode films prepared with this process have specific capacities approaching the practical limit for LiCoO₂, with acceptable rate capabilities and discharge voltage profiles. Solid-state micro-scale batteries have also been fabricated with feature sizes on the order of 50 microns     

Performance characteristics of lithium-ion cells for NASA's Mars2001 Lander application

NASA requires lightweight rechargeable batteries for future missions to Mars and the outer planets that are capable of operating over a wide range of temperatures, with high specific energy and energy densities. Due to the attractive performance characteristics, lithium-ion batteries have been identified as the battery chemistry of choice for a number of future applications, including Mars rovers and landers. The Mars 2001 Lander (Mars Surveyor Program MSP 01) will be one of the first missions which will utilize lithium-ion technology. This application will require two lithium-ion batteries, each being 28 V (eight cells), 25 Ah and 8 kg. In addition to the requirement of being able to supply at least 200 cycles and 90 days of operation on the surface of Mars, the battery must be capable of operation (both charge and discharge) at temperatures as low as -20°C. To assess the viability of lithium-ion cells for these applications, a number of performance characterization tests have been performed, including: assessing the room temperature cycle life, low temperature cycle life (-20°C), rate capability as a function of temperature, pulse capability, self-discharge and storage characteristics, as well as mission profile capability. This paper describes the Mars 2001 Lander mission battery requirements and contains results of the cell testing conducted to-date in support of the mission,     

Silicon Solar Cells at Low Temperature

Electrical characteristics of n-p silicon solar cells have been obtained experimentally over the temperature range of +28 to ?175° and for illumination intensities from 140 to 1.5 mW/cm2. Critical parameters and their distribution are presented for several hundred solar cells from various manufacturers. The effect of cell selection either to a minimum power output at 28° at 5 mW/cm2 or to a minimum open-circuit voltage at ?128° at 5.16 mW/cm2 upon the magnitude and distribution of the critical parameters is investigated. Considerable differences are noted, not just between cells, but also between lots from various manufacturers. Correlation analysis reveals no parameter which when measured at room temperature will predict the power output at low temperatures. This is due to a number of anomalies of the output characteristics at low temperature. These are a lack of the open voltage to continue to increase with decreasing temperature and a double break in the current-voltage characteristics. In addition, some cells show low shunt resistance which makes them have a poor performance at low intensities.     

化学镀Ni-P合金涂层及其耐磨性

 对化学镀 Ni- P的硬度和耐磨性的关系进行了研究。低温长时加热可以获得高硬度 ,继续保温后其值不变。高温加热硬度达最大硬度以后保温硬度降低。不同温度处理其最大值相同 ,但耐磨性不同 ,高温处理优于低温处理。光电子能谱分析表明镀层表面富磷     

High reliability lithium rechargeable batteries for specialties

Since their development in the late 1980s, lithium rechargeable batteries have enjoyed rapid growth and wide use as a commodity battery known for its higher energy density storage and lightweight convenience. These same attributes are emerging as a strong platform in power source development for the medical and aerospace sectors with highly customized applications and narrowly defined criteria. Accordingly, this new generation of lithium rechargeables must be hermetically sealed, have long-term storage capability, and zero-fault tolerances for common causes of field failures such as electrolyte leakage or short circuits from mechanical deformation. Quallion has been developing and manufacturing highly reliable lithium rechargeable cells for medical, aerospace, and specialty applications. Summarized in this paper are some key technologies developed at Quallion for designing and manufacturing of this new class of lithium rechargeable batteries. They include: 1) leakage reliability; 2) self-extinguishing electrolyte system; 3) mechanical impact resistance; 4) deep discharge storage; and 5) high reliability manufacturing.     

低速翼型分离流动的等离子体主动控制研究

为了研究等离子体激励器的放电形式及其诱导气流的规律,以及翼型迎角、自由来流速度分别对翼型流动分离抑制效果的影响。在低速、低雷诺数条件下利用介质阻挡放电等离子体激励器对NACA0015翼型进行了主动流动控制研究。结果表明：介质阻挡放电的形式为丝状放电;等离子体激励器诱导气流的方向由裸露电极指向覆盖电极,由电极的布置方式决定,与接线方式无关;当来流速度为25m／s,雷诺数为2．03×10^5时,等离子体气动激励可以有效地抑制翼型吸力面的流动分离,翼型最大升力系数增大约为9．7％,翼型l临界失速迎角由17．5°增大到20．5°;翼型失速延迟的真正原因并非单纯的气流加速;等离子体激励器的作用效果随着来流速度的提高而减弱,研究非定常激励或等离子体激励器与流场之间的耦合效应,也许更加具有潜力。     

Stochastic battery discharge in portable communication devices

The objective of this work is to explore ways in which performance of battery systems can be enhanced through the use of energy-efficient battery management techniques. The phenomenon of charge recovery that takes place under pulsed discharge conditions is identified as a mechanism that can be exploited to enhance the capacity of a cell in a portable communication device. The bursty nature of many data traffic sources suggests that data transmissions in communication devices may provide natural opportunities for charge recovery. We model the data source as a stochastic process and let the cell discharge be driven by such a process. We use a model of a dual lithium ion insertion cell to identify the improvement to cell capacity that results from the stochastic discharge. The insight from this study leads us to propose discharge shaping techniques that tradeoff energy efficiency with delay in the required current supply     

交流驱动低温等离子体点火触发爆震可行性研究

为了克服交流驱动介质阻挡放电产生连续低温等离子体应用于脉冲爆震发动机点火的困难,通过频率控制,成功设计了按一定频率周期性地产生低温等离子体,放电参数可调,单次放电时间为0.1~1000ms频率为0.1~100Hz。等离子体点火器采用同轴电极结构,单次放电时间0.5ms实现了可燃混气点火,成功触发爆震,这些结果表明采用交流驱动低温等离子体点火触发爆震是可行的。     

航空高强钢低氢脆电镀锌-镍合金工艺研究

对航空高强钢低氢脆电镀锌-镍合金工艺进行研究.分析在酸性氯化物体系下锌-镍比、电流密度、温度及添加剂等工艺参数对镀层性能的影响,得到镍含量达到13%～15%,耐蚀性能、低氢脆性能满足要求的合金镀层.     

Hubble performance on-orbit

A summary of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) nickel-hydrogen (NiH/sub 2/) battery performance from launch to the present. Over the life of HST vehicle configuration, charge system degradation and failures, together with thermal design limitations, have had a significant effect on the capacity of HST batteries. Changes made to the charge system configuration to protect against power system failures and to maintain battery thermal stability resulted in undercharging of the batteries. This undercharging resulted in decreased usable battery capacity as well as battery cell voltage/capacity divergence. This cell divergence was made evident during on-orbit battery capacity measurements by a relatively shallow slope of the discharge curve following the discharge knee. Early efforts to improve battery performance have been successful. On-orbit capacity measurement data indicates increases in the usable battery capacity of all six batteries as well as improvements in the battery cell voltage/capacity divergence. Additional measures have been implemented to improve battery performance, however, failures within the HST Power Control Unit (PCU) have prevented verification of battery status.     

低温等离子体放电区长度对点火起爆的影响

为了研究低温等离子体放电区长度,即放电区间隙不变,体积大小对脉冲爆震发动机点火起爆的影响,以丙烷为燃料,空气和纯氧为氧化剂,充分考虑其详细的化学反应动力学机理,将低温等离子体放电区等效为高温高压火核,对放电区长度为20,40,60mm三种结构,利用Fluent软件,对点火起爆过程进行数值模拟,并进行对比分析.结果表明:将低温等离子体放电区等效为高温高压火核是可行的,能够得到完整的点火起爆过程;不同放电区长度,对初始火焰形成、火焰传播速度和缓燃转爆震(DDT)时间有很大影响,对爆震波峰值压力影响不大.      

GEO卫星多层隔热组件充放电特性仿真

多层隔热组件包覆于卫星外表面,占据了整星表面的60%以上,既是必要的热控组件,也是抑制空间强电磁环境源的重要载体。相较于卫星内部组件,星表直接面临高能粒子的冲击与作用,导致其在轨面临的静电威胁极为严峻。其本质原因是高能电子穿透多层隔热组件的面膜,沉积于多层组件内部间隔层,进而在介质材料层形成了内建电场,造成静电放电效应。针对多层隔热组件的复合结构特点,建立了合理优化的内带电物理模型及其计算模型,模拟了GEO环境电子在典型多层隔热组件电子输运过程,进而计算明晰了间隔层涤纶网的电场分布特性。结果表明,在GEO恶劣电子辐射环境下,多层涤纶网充电电场强度可高达9.7×10⁸ V/m,存在放电风险;涤纶网接地边、角处的电场强度最高且电场畸变幅度巨大;多层充放电风险主要来自涤纶网与反射屏之间的非紧密接触而伴随的不良接地情况,建议通过加密棉线缝合间距以提升涤纶网与反射屏的接触效果,从而降低多层的充放电风险。