Battery reliability and safety (Part one)

Michael Root - January 23, 2013

Excerpted from The TAB Battery Book: An In-Depth Guide to Construction, Design, and Use
(McGraw-Hill Professional; 2011) by Michael Root with permission from McGraw-Hill Professional.

Editor's note: I found this book very informative regarding batteries and their
construction, design and usage. In light of the recent Boeing 787 battery or charging
system failures, I thought this would help us to understand some of the challenges and
possible solutions on the battery side of things in designing a reliable power system. Please
do comment and give our readers your expertise and thoughts about this problem and
about this chapter 8 of the book. The following is part one of Chapter 8 and part two is
posted here.

I will also be reviewing this book in the near future.

Chapter 8

Battery Reliability and Safety

Important concepts from this chapter:

Battery reliability: The probability of failure

Battery safety: The consequences of failure

Reliability
Battery reliability is the probability that a battery will deliver energy and power in a specified
manner under a defined set of conditions.

Battery performance—the ability of a battery to deliver defined power and energy levels—is not
constant. How it performs depends on a number of factors. The environmental conditions under
which a battery operates usually have a large effect on performance, particularly temperature and
mechanical vibration or shock. For some batteries, pressure (high and low) and humidity may also
affect their performance.

Batteries are designed and their materials are chosen to function under a range of conditions that
are relevant to the intended applications. A lithium–manganese dioxide (Li/MnO2) coin cell that runs
a wristwatch will mostly operate at room temperature, or about 21°C (70°F).

That same Li/MnO2 coin cell may instead be used to power a tire pressure sensor— devices mounted
in an automobile wheel that measures the air pressure in the tire. Temperatures may range between
–40°C (–40°F) and +120°C (+250°F), or even higher, in this application. Not to mention the severe
shock and vibration it could experience on rough roads or hitting potholes.

So, battery manufacturers must either supply different batteries for different applications or design
their batteries to reliably operate under as large of a range of conditions as possible.

Time is another factor. Some batteries may need to be stored unused for long periods of time, and
then must function immediately when needed. Batteries typically lose some of their energy just
sitting on a shelf for extended periods of time.

There are a number of ways a battery can fail to meet performance expectations, including self-
discharge that decreases the energy output of a battery from parasitic chemical reactions depleting
the active materials, or else increased internal resistance that reduces the power output of a battery.

Measuring Variability

Physical dimensions, discharge performance, internal resistance, and all of the other important
characteristics of a single battery type vary somewhat from cell to cell and battery to battery. These
variations are the cumulative result of all the variabilities associated with all of the individual cell
components. Not only that, each of the many manufacturing process steps that are necessary to
assemble the battery can have their own variability that affects the overall cell variability.

Battery manufacturers strive to minimize the sources of variability of cell components and
manufacturing processes, but variability cannot be eliminated altogether. Raw material, component,
and battery specifications are written with this fact in mind by including tolerances—an acceptable
range of variability for each component part and for the battery itself.

Battery manufacturers also perform an assortment of quality assurance tests on incoming raw
materials and purchased components, as well as the completed batteries during and after
manufacturing to verify they meet specifications within the range of specified tolerances. There is
variability in the equipment used to test batteries that may affect, however slightly, their measured
performance outputs.

Batteries may be shipped to and stored in warehouses or other storage facilities following
manufacture. They are shipped to the customer, who may store the batteries for unpredictable
periods of time. During storage and while shipping, batteries may be exposed to different
environmental conditions, especially high temperatures, which may measurably degrade
performance. Finally, just the elapsed time between manufacture and use may also affect battery
operation. End user expects battery to meet specs
An end user who balances the purchase price against battery performance claims from the
manufacturer expects the battery to meet specifications. So, measuring and understanding
variability is important for manufacturers to evaluate battery quality during manufacturing and to
predict the reliability of a battery to perform according to specifications under different use
conditions.

For some attributes, like the physical dimensions or weight, a battery manufacturer can easily
measure these and provide a specified range for these parameters for each battery type. They may
even be standardized for some battery types and sizes. An alkaline zinc–manganese dioxide AA cell
has the same dimensions as a nickel–metal hydride AA cell.

Battery performance reliability and failure predictions are not so easy. For some applications, this
may involve predicting battery operational characteristics over many years using only short-term
battery test data.

Calculating the probability of batteries meeting specifications, or stated another way the probability
of some sort of battery failure occurring, is important for manufacturers so that they can establish
appropriate expectations for the customer through performance claims or specifications. The
customer, in turn, may require this information to help assess the performance characteristics and
reliability of their equipment or device for their customers.

This kind of information is also used by the battery manufacturers to improve their batteries and
reduce failure rates.

Another incentive is minimizing warranty costs paid to customers for under-performing batteries. If
a battery manufacturer predicts the rate of failing to achieve the expected battery discharge
capacity to be 0.1 percent, they can project the cost of paying out warranty claims on one battery
out of every 1,000 batteries sold. This can then be used to help set pricing and factor into profit
estimates. If their calculation is wrong and the failure rate is instead, say, 0.3 percent they would
need to pay three times the original estimates in warranty claims.

For the reasons just stated, battery manufacturers devote considerable resources to measuring,
monitoring, and evaluating battery quality and reliability during all stages of battery design,
development, and manufacturing.

The variability of anything can be understood by looking at the distribution of a measured quantity.
Like individuals are grouped together into a population and their characteristics measured.

Let’s say we are a battery manufacturer and we want to understand the variability characteristics of
our 18650 lithium ion cells. We know from past testing experience that our cells have a capacity of
2.2 Ah on average when discharged using a constant current of 1.1 A at room temperature (21°C)
following a full charge per the recommended charging procedure.

The discharge time in hours is equal to the capacity in amp-hours divided by the current in amps, so
the cells are expected to last 2 h when discharged under these conditions. We may not know all of
the different uses of the battery, but we figured out that a 1.1 A discharge rate at 21°C reasonably
simulates how our battery is utilized by the customer.
We remove a sample of 100 cells from a large manufacturing lot and test them as just described.
These are only a sample, and we are hoping that what we find out about the performance
characteristics of these batteries will accurately represent how the rest of them will perform in the
users’ hands.

The voltage curves might look like those of five of the cells shown in Figure 8-1. Not all of the cells
complete discharge at the same time. Some last longer than two hours, and some less.

Figure 8-1 Discharge curves for five lithium ion 18650 cells with nominal capacities of 2.2
Ah charged per the manufacturer’s recommended procedure, and then discharged with a
1.1 A constant current

A graph of different discharge times

A graph of the different discharge times is shown in Figure 8-2. Discharge times range from 1.90
hours to 2.09 hours, but the mean, or average, discharge time is 2.00 hours.

Figure 8-2 Variation in measured battery discharge times for 100 lithium ion18650 cells
with a nominal capacity of 2.2 Ah charged per the manufacturer’s recommended
procedure, and then discharged with a 1.1 A constant current

Plotting the distribution of discharge times is more informative. We do this first by dividing the full
range of discharge times into groups of equally spaced ranges of discharge times, or bins as they are
commonly called. Your spreadsheet or statistics software probably provides a way to do this
automatically.

For our example, we want to use time increments of 0.02 hours, so the bins are 1.88 to 1.90 hours,
1.90 to 1.92 hours, and so on up to 2.1 hours. Cells that completed discharge within a particular
range of times are lumped together into a time bin and the number of cells within each bin is
counted. A histogram of the number of batteries (or percent of the total number of batteries) within
each bin is shown in Figure 8-3.

Figure 8-3 Top: The distribution of measured battery discharge times for 100 lithium ion
18650 cells charged per the manufacturer’s recommended procedure, and then discharged
with a 1.1 A constant current. Bottom: The same distribution of discharge times with a
superimposed normal distribution curve. The abbreviation “sd” stands for standard
deviation.

There are a number of different types of distributions, but many can be fit to what is called a
“normal” distribution. A normal distribution curve depicts the probabilities of the individuals in a
population will have a certain value. The peak of the curve occurs at the average value for all of the
individuals. The curve drops off from the peak and tapers toward zero at each end (nicknamed the
“tails” of the distribution).

Using a normal distribution like in Figure 8-3, we can also calculate various statistical parameters,
like the standard deviation, which is a measure of the variability. (Refer to any book on statistics to
get the mathematical formulation of standard deviation.) Here, the standard deviation for the
discharge time is 0.03 hours. The mean and the standard deviation (abbreviated sd in Figure 8-3)
are written like this: mean ± one standard deviation, or in this case 2.00 ± 0.03 hours.

If these 100 test samples are sufficiently representative of the remainder of the batteries in the
manufacturing lot, there is a 50 percent probability that any one battery will deliver a discharge
time less than the mean value (2.00 hours in our example) under the same test conditions. The
probability of one of our batteries having a discharge time within one standard deviation of the mean
value, between 1.97 and 2.03 hours, is about 68 percent—a 34 percent probability of being greater
than the mean discharge time and a 34 percent probability of being less than the mean discharge
time.

We might really be interested only in the batteries that deliver less than the mean discharge time if
we don’t care that some cells may run longer than the average time. In this case, we can say there is
an 84 percent probability a battery discharged under the same test conditions will deliver a
discharge time equal to or greater than 1.97 hours (the mean minus one standard deviation). In
other words, there is about a 16 percent probability a battery discharge time will be less than 1.97
hours, or a little more than 1 in 6 chance.

Battery discharge time probability

The probability of a battery with a discharge time less than two standard deviations from the mean,
or 1.94 hours, is 2.3 percent, and less than three standard deviations (1.91 hours) is 0.13 percent.

So, let’s say we want to offer a warranty and we budget for a warranty payout rateof 1 out of every
1,000 batteries. We can use the normal distribution curve to calculate the discharge time, 1.90
hours, below which there is a 0.1 percent probability that a battery will deliver less than 1.90 hours
and fail to meet customer expectations. So, we might set our specification minimum at 1.90 hours
when our battery is discharged with a constant current of 1.1 A at 21°C.

This is a simple example of how one can specify battery performance. It may not be that easy,
though. The distribution may not be normal. Perhaps it is skewed to one side or the other. Or there
could be more than one distribution superimposed. In addition, it may be difficult to compare the
performance of a battery discharged in a controlled test environment to a battery used in an actual
device.

Further, we have not considered any of the many other factors that contribute to early battery
failures, rather just cell-to-cell variations in discharge performance under a strict and limited set of
conditions. Outright battery failures may be more of a concern for users than missing the capacity
specification by a few percent.

Assessing Reliability

We take a look at reliability and failures related to the battery in this section and not those where
battery failure is externally induced. A faulty device may completely discharge a battery
prematurely. An end user may misuse a battery by excessively charging a battery at a higher-tha-
-recommended temperature or use it in the wrong application. Improper handling and misuse are
said to be the most common causes of a battery failing to perform up to expectations. In each of
these cases, battery performance will be adversely affected, but the battery is only an innocent
bystander.

Remember that battery reliability is the probability that a battery will deliver defined energy and
power levels under a specific set of conditions. The end of battery life can be defined in a number of
ways, including

● The voltage, either without a load (open circuit voltage) or with a load (loaded or discharge
voltage), falls below a specified limit at which a device can no longer properly operate.

● The internal resistance increases beyond a defined threshold value.

● The power output is too low.

● A decline in discharge capacity below a defined level with the number of charge and discharge
cycles of a rechargeable battery.

● Venting of gas and electrolyte leakage as a result of excessive pressure buildup.

Any or all of these can be used by a battery manufacturer or end user to define the end of the useful
service life for a battery. Some are related. For example, a high internal resistance results in a lower
loaded voltage and reduced power output.

The usual figures of merit, or measure, that define battery life at the point of failure or normal
depletion are time (minutes, years), capacity (Ah), energy (Wh), the number of charge and discharge
cycles, or the number of high current pulses, depending on the battery type and target applications
for the battery.

Example using PR70

Here is an example: The end point limit is often a minimum voltage level for a particular load or
range of loads and a set of environmental condition. For example, a PR70 zinc-air cell (10 size)
discharged with a 3 kΩ resistor at 21°C and 50 percent relative humidity to a voltage limit of 0.9 V is
expected to deliver 91 mAh.

For rechargeable cells, this limit might be the number of charge and discharge cycles before the
discharge capacity decreases to 80 percent of the discharge capacity measured in the first cycle.
Another example: An 18650 lithium ion cell with a nominal capacity of 2.40 Ah is charged to 4.2 V at
1.2 A and held at 4.2 V until the current drops to 0.12 A (constant current—constant voltage
charging protocol—see Chapter 11) at 21°C. Following a 20-minute rest at open circuit, the cell is
discharged with a constant 1.2 A current to 3.0 V.

The change in discharge capacity for this cell with the number of charge and discharge cycles is
shown in Figure 8-4. This cell is expected to provide about 600 such charge and discharge cycles
before the cell discharge capacity declines to 80 percent of the capacity delivered in the first cycle
(2.40 Ah × 80% = 1.92 Ah).

Frequently, manufacturers will provide multiple values for battery life (as well as other functional
characteristics like discharge voltage) for multiple sets of conditions.

The underlying causes for battery failure are many. They tend to vary across different cell
chemistries, different construction types (cylindrical bobbin, spiral wound, prismatic, button, coin)
and battery sizes. Different failure modes are more likely to occur at different times during the life of
a battery, while some can occur at any time. They could have different probability distributions, and
there may be multiple failure mechanisms operating simultaneously that confound the data and
complicate analysis.

We can break down failures into four broad categories based on when they occur during the life of a
battery—early failures, latent failures and random defects, premature end of life, and normal
depletions. We will start with the last one first.
Figure 8-4 The change in discharge capacity with the number of charge and discharge
cycles for a lithium ion cell. It takes about 600 cycles before the discharge capacity drops
to 80 percent of the discharge capacity from the first cycle.

Normal Depletion

Normal depletion (or wear-out, as some call it) is not really a failure mode. All batteries have a finite
service life—even rechargeable batteries. Eventually they will become depleted as the active
materials are consumed or the internal resistance increases to a high enough level, or some other
mechanism comes into play, and the battery is no longer able to supply sufficient power.

Primary batteries become depleted when the active materials are discharged with a load. Other
parasitic chemical reactions, collectively called self-discharge, also decrease the amount of active
material over time, but no useful energy can be captured from these reactions. Self-discharge results
in the loss of performance as the active materials are consumed. The selection of battery chemistry
and design, as well as environmental exposure (particularly temperature) influences the rate of self-
discharge. Battery designers try hard to minimize self-discharge, of course.

The energy in secondary batteries is replenished with an external source of electricity that is
converted into chemical energy. Even with recharging, secondary batteries eventually become
unable to deliver an acceptable discharge capacity or power, often a result of their inability to
accept a sufficient charge during recharging.

Secondary batteries also undergo self-discharge, usually at rates much greater than those of primary
batteries. Some, but not all, of the capacity lost to self-discharge is recovered during charging.

Deterioration of performance is a function of time and the number of cycles, but also how the battery
was stored, discharged, and charged, as well as the environmental conditions in which the battery is
operating.

Performance requirements under a wide range of environmental conditions (especially temperature)

are defined by battery manufacturers. They must first understand how their batteries will be used by
customers, design appropriate tests to gauge battery performance under a set of conditions the
battery will likely experience, implement enough testing to adequately characterize the outputs and
limitations of their batteries, and then assign an expected battery life based on the test data or a
model projection based on the test data. Of course, normal battery depletion is subject to cell-to-cell
variability as discussed earlier in this chapter.

Look for Part two coming soon "Early Failures"

Other articles on this subject:

TI introduces first multi-cell, multi-chemistry battery gas gauge for lithium batteries

Li-ion battery-charger solutions for JEITA compliance

Battery Fuel Gauges: Accurately measuring charge level