Press Release
Share
Physical Sciences Inc. (PSI) has been awarded a contract by the U.S. Navy to develop a sensor for early warning of battery failures through the detection of vent gases.
PSI will adapt and combine two previously demonstrated, mature technologies to provide a comprehensive solution to this problem. The resulting technology will support rapid, sensitive and selective detection of vent gases spanning 1‑1000 ppm. This is accomplished by first encoding the source spectrum across the MWIR and LWIR spectra range, supporting robust discrimination between chemicals and an enhanced signal to noise ratio due to the multiplexed measurement. The spectrally modulated source is used to make sample transmission measurements over the full spectral range and a 50x range of pathlengths leveraging a compact open-path sample cell. This data is fit along two dimensions (pathlength and wavelength) to Beer’s Law, resulting in a quantification and discrimination immune to source instability or other common mode noise. Under the Phase I, PSI will leverage in-house hardware to demonstrate the key features of the two parent technologies as applied to the battery thermal runaway problem. These two technologies will then be integrated under the Phase II to produce a complete solution for early vent gas detection that can be used to improve the reliability, cost and safety of battery powered vehicles for Navy applications.
For more information contact:
Elizabeth C. Schundler
Group Leader, Optical Systems Technologies
eschundler@psicorp.com
Physical Sciences Inc.
Office: (978) 689-0003
Acknowledgement of Sponsorship: This work is supported under a contract with the Naval Sea Systems Command. This support does not constitute an express or implied endorsement on the part of the Government.