Relative Entropy based Lithium-ion Battery Pack Short Circuit Detection for Electric Vehicle

The thermal runaway of an electric vehicle (EV) battery can cause severe loss of property and human life. A cell short circuit can lead to thermal runaway in a minutes. Therefore, battery short circuit detection systems are important for prevention and limitation of EV fire incidents. This paper proposes a short circuit detection and isolation method for lithium-ion battery packs based on relative entropy. The proposed data-driven method can identify the voltage drop behavior caused by the short circuit. It is verified using real-world data measured from electric vehicles which experienced thermal runaway causing a fire incident. The relative entropy method can recognize the data pattern in real time and give a short circuit alarm to the driver.