Accelerated Life Evaluation of Valve-Regulated Lead-Acid Batteries

摘要

Valve-regulated lead-acid (VRLA) batteries are primarily used in standby and uninterruptable power source applications at present. Manufacturers expect these and/or similar VRLA batteries to provide a life of 1000--1500 cycles with deep discharging at operating temperatures of approximately 25C. However, insufficient data are available to determine their suitability and life in such repetitive cycling applications. Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) has developed and initiated an accelerated life evaluation of VRLA batteries to acquire this data. The objectives of the ANL accelerated life evaluation are (1) to use accelerated testing techniques to obtain supporting evidence within 6 months that VRLA batteries have an expected life of more than 500 cycles in deep-discharge applications, and (2) to determine VRLA battery life within a 2--3 year time period under conditions (temperature and depth-of-discharge) that simulate those encountered in a utility operating environment. 3 tabs.