Understanding Battery

operating life
 What we will discuss
• Primary (non-rechargeable) battery types deployed in remote sites
and harsh environments
• Basic differences in battery design – the “bottle analogy”
• How battery design affects annual self-discharge and operating life
• Why batteries are not “logical” – testing them is not straight forward
• Long-term tests that more accurately predict actual battery life
Batteries are like bottles of energy
The comparison
• The volume of the bottle is equivalent to battery capacity
• Evaporation/self discharge is equivalent to unused capacity loss
• Flow rate is equal to discharge
• Low liquid/electrolyte quality can lead to plugging the opening which
will cause flow stoppage/passivation
• Low liquid/electrolyte quality can cause evaporation/self discharge
• Lithium Thionyl Chloride batteries have “small openings”
• High rate batteries have “larger openings”
What effects how long fluids in bottles
(or capacity in batteries) can last
1. How quickly they are poured out – FLOW RATE

1. How much they evaporate – SELF DISCHARGE

2. How long the fluid stays pure and can still be used (impure liquids
will not be used) - PASSIVATION
Long operating life is all about the bottle opening
• Large openings are good for fast flow/discharge but not for storing
fluid for a long time
• For long operating life you need small opening for low evaporation/
self discharge
• Opening size / battery design is a critical issue - too large an opening
and more evaporation/self discharge, too small an opening and there
is no flow and the opening can be stuffed up (passivation)
• Fluid/chemistry quality is imperative to keep impurities/passivation
low
Bottles with larger openings
• Are like high rate batteries
• Larger opening allows for higher flow
• Higher evaporation/ capacity loss
• Higher fluid surface area – can lead to contamination/passivation
• Heat causes faster evaporation/ capacity loss and fluid
contamination/ passivation
• Cold causes surface to freeze – no flow

• To gulp
Bottles with smaller opening
• Can not flow out fast
• Less evaporation/ self discharge
• Less contamination at fluid surface

• To sip
Comparative opening sizes
Comparative evaporation / self discharge rates
Comparative flow rates
Volume left after fastest flow rate
Volume left after 10 years of self discharge only - no load
Volume left after 20 years of self discharge only – no load
Liquid/ electrolyte quality effects self discharge
Clogged openings – passivation - prevent flow
• Low quality fluid/electrolyte can freeze in the opening in cold
• Low quality fluid/electrolyte can plug up opening in the heat
Cross sectional view of container openings
Seal quality effects battery life
When you want long life with occasional big pulses
• You pour from a vessel with a small opening into a reservoir with a big
opening
• You connect a bobbin cell (small opening) to a energy storage device
with a big opening (HLC or supercap)
• Reservoir fills between gulps/pulses
Lithium/supercap hybrid
• Both lithium and supercaps have individual self discharges (balancing
circuits, etc.)
 Don’t RUN a test!
Testing battery operating life can not be rushed.
Running a test too quickly gives false results
(self-discharge can not be measured quickly).
Don’t only judge what came out of a battery.
Test results over the life of the device
When actual usage rate and self-discharge are
taken into account
Battery life can be compared to a RACE
Are you looking for speed or distance (LONG LIFE)?
Almost flat, large number of very small
pulses, very long life
Almost flat, large number of very BIG
pulses, very long life
If you run a test with the 5 year rate:
Proving that batteries can last 40 years -
How to test
Actual results in the field:
- A utility changed out 10s of thousands of its gas meters after 28 years of operation. The batteries were still
operating and a test in our labs on cells sent from the field showed they could have operated for over 30
years. This was an older technology of ours.

Continuous long term testing:

- Tadiran continues to test samples from every production lot we ever produced (over 40 years)

Long term testing at 72c: Arrhenius test

- At 72c you use the battery up at a rate 32 times higher than at 22c. We have a test still running after 90
months at 72c – the equivalent of centuries at 22c.

Testing results confirmed by use of a calorimeter, the most accurate testing device for batteries
 Thank you.
You can contact us at sales@tadiranbat.com with any further
questions.

www.tadiranbat.com