Battery module and pack testing involves very little testing of the internal chemical reactions of the individual cells. Module and pack tests typically evaluate the overall battery performance, safety, battery management systems (BMS), cooling systems, and internal heating characteristics.
Engineers also check for any malfunction, temperature rise in the battery pack, current carrying capacity, cooling capacity, and overall mechanical structure. After complete testing, packs may undergo extra testing to simulate the typical conditions and be integrated into the system or end-product.
An inherent part of battery testing includes charge and discharge tests to measure the battery capacity and the DC internal resistance at different state of charges (SoC). A battery is charged by using a source to put energy into the battery or discharged by using a load to draw energy out. Let’s consider a one-time-use battery as an example.
Module and pack tests typically evaluate the overall battery performance, safety, battery management systems (BMS), cooling systems, and internal heating characteristics. Common performance-based tests include drive-cycles, peak power capability, BMS software validation, and other application-specific characterization
Key fundamentals of battery testing include understanding key terms such as state of charge (SOC); the battery management system (BMS) which has important functions including communication, safety and protection; and battery cycling (charge and discharge) which is the core of most tests.
Diagram of battery module and pack testing in design and manufacturing. There is significantly less time available to test during production due to high throughput. Typically the system validation done on the pack level can easily take upwards of 6 minutes per unit.