IEC Standard Temperature and Humidity Cycle Life Test for Battery

What is high temperature and high humidity test (temperature and humidity cycle test chamber)?

The high temperature and humidity/temperature and humidity cycle test of nickel-cadmium and nickel-metal hydride batteries is as follows: the battery is discharged to 1.0V at 0.2℃, and charged at 1℃ for 75 minutes before it is placed at 66℃, stored at 85% humidity for 192 hours (8 days), and kept at room temperature and humidity for 2 hours. The battery should not be deformed or leak, and the capacity recovery should be more than 80% of the nominal capacity.

Test Standard: IEC 62660-2
Thermal Test
Battery Thermal Test chamber

This test is performed to characterize cell responses to high-temperature environment.
a) Adjust the SOC of the cell to 100% for BEV application, and to 80% for HEV application.

b) The cell, stabilized at room temperature, shall be placed in a gravity or circulating air-convection oven. The oven temperature shall be raised at a rate of 5K/min to a temperature of 130℃±2K. The cell shall remain at this temperature for 30 min before the test is discontinued.
Note-If necessary, to prevent deformation, the cell may be maintained during the test in a manner that does not violate the test purpose. The manner to prevent deformation should be representative of cells inside battery systems and battery packs.

Temperature cycling
Battery Temperature cycling test chamber
 

This test is performed to characterize thermal durability of a cell by exposing at a low and high temperature environment alternately to cause expansion and contraction of cell components.
 

a) Adjust the SOC of the cell to 100% for BEV application, and to 80% for HEV application.
 

b) Perform the temperature cycling in accordance with ISO 16750-4 as shown in Table 4 the minimum operating temperature shall be -40℃ or Tmin specified by the cell manufacturer and the maximum operating temperature shall be 85℃ or Tmax specified by the cell manufacturer. Perform 30 test cycles as specified.
 

Table 4