Engineering topics
Publications and source records attributed to Warnock, D. R..
A 3.5 in. diameter, nominal 15A h cell went into advanced development in 1976 and is still in advanced development. The development of common pressure vessel nickel hydrogen modules is explored. The concept is to put a number of nickel hydrogen cells into one pressure vessel. There is a very modest advantage in terms of weight energy density, but a substantial advantage in both volume energy density and cost.
Nickel hydrogen cell technology has been developed which solves the problems of thermal management, oxygen management, electrolyte management, and electrical and mechanical design peculiar to this new type of battery. This technology was weight optimized for low orbit operation using computer modeling programs but is near optimum for other orbits. Cells ranging in capacity up to about 70 ampere-hours can be made from components of a single standard size and are available from two manufacturers. The knowledge gained is now being applied to the development of two extensions to the basic design: a second set of larger standard components that will cover the capacity range up to 150 ampere-hours; and the development of multicell common pressure vessel modules to reduce volume, cost and weight. A manufacturing technology program is planned to optimize the producibility of the cell design and reduce cost. The most important areas for further improvement are life and reliability which are governed by electrode and separator technology.
Air Force activities in nickel hydrogen battery research were summarized. The latest developments for the past year were discussed and applications of the nickel hydrogen batteries were reviewed.