Inducing alternating magnetic fields for real-time non-contact fault localization within electric energy storage component arrays

With the wide application of electric energy storage component arrays, such as battery cell arrays, capacitor arrays, and inductor arrays, their potential safety risks have gradually drawn the public attention. However, existing technologies cannot realize rapid, precise, and nondestructive localization of the faulty component within these large-scale arrays, especially for a component with an early stage short-circuit fault. To address this challenge, this paper proposes a magnetic field based method and realizes precise fault localization by inducing an alternating magnetic field from the target array, unlike previous research where a static magnetic field was induced. Through establishing a physical model of the short-circuit component as well as the whole array, a spatial filtering algorithm based on beamforming techniques is utilized to process the measured magnetic field data in real time. Both the simulation and experimental results demonstrate the capability of the proposed method in enhancing the security of electric energy storage component arrays. Within an imaging area of 80 × 80 mm2, the proposed method can accurately locate the faulty component out of a nine-component array, with an error of only 0.72 mm for capacitors and 0.91 mm for battery cells.