Battery control system and vehicle control system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9573472-B2
Application number	US-201414909600-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 18, 2014
Priority date	Aug 9, 2013
Publication date	Feb 21, 2017
Grant date	Feb 21, 2017

Abstract

A battery control system connected to a battery equipped with an explosion-proofing mechanism for cutting off an electric current when the battery enters an overcharge state, including: a cell voltage detection unit that detects voltage at the battery; a storage unit that stores information pertaining to the battery conditions; an overcharge decision-making unit that makes a decision as to whether or not the battery is in an overcharge state; a storage control unit that engages the storage unit to store information pertaining to the overcharge state when the overcharge decision-making unit decides that the battery is in an overcharge state; and an explosion-proofing decision-making unit that decides that the explosion-proofing mechanism in the battery has actuated if the overcharge information is stored in the storage unit and the cell voltage detected by the cell voltage detection unit is lower than a predetermined lower limit value.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A battery control system connected to a battery equipped with an explosion-proofing mechanism for cutting off an electric current when the battery enters an overcharge state, which controls conditions at the battery, comprising:
a cell voltage detection unit that detects a cell voltage at the battery;
a storage unit that stores information pertaining to the conditions at the battery;
an overcharge decision-making unit that makes a decision as to whether or not the battery is in an overcharge state;
a storage control unit that engages the storage unit to store overcharge information pertaining to the overcharge state at the battery when the overcharge decision-making unit decides that the battery is in an overcharge state; and
an explosion-proofing decision-making unit that decides that the explosion-proofing mechanism in the battery has actuated if the overcharge information is stored in the storage unit at startup of the battery control system and the cell voltage detected by the cell voltage detection unit is lower than a predetermined lower limit value.

2. The battery control system according to claim 1 , further comprising:
a failure detection unit that detects a failure in the cell voltage detection unit, wherein:
the explosion-proofing decision-making unit also decides that the explosion-proofing mechanism in the battery has actuated if the overcharge information is stored in the storage unit at startup of the battery control system and a failure at the cell voltage detection unit is detected by the failure detection unit.

3. The battery control system according to claim 1 , further comprising:
an SOC calculation unit that calculates an SOC value for the battery, wherein:
the overcharge decision-making unit decides that the battery is in an overcharge state if the cell voltage detected by the cell voltage detection unit is equal to or higher than a predetermined overcharge voltage and the SOC value calculated by the SOC calculation unit is equal to or greater than a predetermined overcharge SOC.

4. The battery control system according to claim 3 , wherein:
the overcharge decision-making unit decides that the battery is in an overcharge state if a state in which the cell voltage is equal to or higher than the overcharge voltage has been sustained for a length of time equal to or longer than a predetermined time length and the SOC value calculated by the SOC calculation unit is equal to or greater than the predetermined overcharge SOC.

5. The battery control system according to claim 1 , wherein:
the overcharge information stored in the storage unit at startup of the battery control system is invalidated if the explosion-proofing decision-making unit decides that the explosion-proofing mechanism has not actuated.

6. A vehicle control system, comprising:
a battery control system connected to a battery equipped with an explosion-proofing mechanism for cutting off an electric current when the battery enters an overcharge state, which controls conditions at the battery; and
a vehicle control unit, connected with the battery control system, which controls traveling conditions of a vehicle, wherein:
the battery control system comprises
a cell voltage detection unit that detects a cell voltage at the battery,
a storage unit that stores information pertaining to the conditions at the battery,
an overcharge decision-making unit that makes a decision as to whether or not the battery is in an overcharge state, and
a storage control unit that engages the storage unit to store overcharge information pertaining to the overcharge state at the battery when the overcharge decision-making unit decides that the battery is in an overcharge state; and

the vehicle control unit decides that the explosion-proofing mechanism in the battery has actuated if the overcharge information is stored in the storage unit at startup of the vehicle and the cell voltage detected by the cell voltage detection unit is lower than a predetermined lower limit value.

Assignees

• Hitachi Automotive Systems Ltd
• Nissan Motor

Inventors

• Takada Masayuki
• Machida Akihiro
• Shinotsuka Norihiro
• Morikawa Hiroshi
• Maeshima Toshikazu
• Kiyota Shigeyuki
• Tanaka Yoshiyuki
• Iguchi Toyoki
• Saitou Hiroaki
• Hashimoto Hiroaki

Classifications

• B60L3/04 Primary

  Cutting off the power supply under fault conditions (protective devices and circuit arrangements in general H01H; H02H) · CPC title

• B60L58/15

  Preventing overcharging · CPC title

• B60L58/16

  responding to battery ageing, e.g. to the number of charging cycles or the state of health [SoH] · CPC title

• H02J2105/37

  exchanging power with electric vehicles [EV] or with hybrid electric vehicles [HEV] · CPC title

• H02J7/61

  against overcharge · CPC title