Fault Analysis of UPS Battery Used in Outdoor Base Station

With the increasing application of outdoor base stations, UPS battery failures are becoming more and more obvious in harsh application environments, such as the environments in South Asia such as Pakistan and India. This causes both financial loss to the operator and damages customer satisfaction. Various research institutions have conducted extensive research on the damage of batteries in harsh application environments, in-depth understanding of the application scenarios of UPS batteries, and investigation and analysis of the causes of battery failures.

Since the charging mechanism of the current domestic DC system is not very perfect, there is a situation of voltage drift in practice. The UPS battery is in a floating state for a long time. If the floating voltage deviates from the normal range, it will cause overcharging or undercharging of the battery. Long-term overcharging or undercharging has a great impact on the performance of the battery.  

Judging from the current survey of the use of batteries, thermal runaway is also one of the main reasons for battery failure. Thermal runaway means that when the battery is charged at a constant voltage, the charging current and battery temperature have a cumulative enhancement effect, which can gradually damage the battery. The direct consequence of thermal runaway is that the shell of the battery bulges and leaks air, the capacity of the battery decreases, and in severe cases, the plate is deformed and eventually fails.

Temperature has a great influence on the natural aging process of the battery. For every 5 degrees Celsius increase in temperature, the battery life will decrease by 10%. Therefore, the design of the UPS should keep the battery temperature as low as possible. All online and backup/online hybrid UPSs generate more heat than backup or online interactive UPSs. This is also a backup or online interactive UPS. An important reason for the relatively long replacement cycle of UPS batteries.

The operating humidity of the battery should be 5%-95%. If the ambient humidity is too high, it will condense on the surface of the battery, which is prone to short circuit, and the humidity of the PF environment is too low, and it is easy to generate static electricity. Excessive dust can also easily short-circuit the lead-acid battery and cause the safety valve to block and fail.

With the continuous development of science and technology, the performance of UPS batteries is getting better and better, the average trouble-free working time is getting longer and longer, and the reliability of the whole machine is getting higher and higher. It is particularly important to do a good job in the maintenance of consumable batteries in UPS.