這個新實驗室可以讓電動車更加安全

桑迪亞國家實驗室迷宮般的建築中隱藏著一系列致力於確保道路安全的實驗。雖然「BAT 實驗室」與某個 DC 漫畫超級英雄無關，但他們的工作可以拯救生命。

Tucked away in the maze of buildings at Sandia National Labs is a series of experiments working to make roadways safe. While the ‘BAT Lab” has nothing to do with a certain DC Comics superhero, their work could save lives.

桑迪亞國家實驗室迷宮般的建築中隱藏著一系列致力於確保道路安全的實驗。雖然「BAT 實驗室」與某個 DC 漫畫超級英雄無關，但他們的工作可以拯救生命。

Lorraine Torres-Castro may not be a caped crusader, but her work is certainly protecting the good citizens of any city that’s home to electric vehicles.

洛林·托雷斯-卡斯特羅可能不是披著斗篷的十字軍戰士，但她的工作無疑是保護任何擁有電動車的城市的好公民。

Torres-Castro and her team don’t work in the catacombs of Gotham City, they’re working in the BAT Lab with Sandia National Laboratories.

托雷斯-卡斯楚和她的團隊並不在哥譚市的地下墓穴工作，他們在桑迪亞國家實驗室的 BAT 實驗室工作。

“BAT” is short for “battery abuse testing” and in this lab, a team of scientists is pushing batteries to their limits in order to make their use safer.

「BAT」是「電池濫用測試」的縮寫，在這個實驗室中，一群科學家正在將電池推向極限，以使其使用更安全。

“We work from very small batteries up to what you will have in a watch. Very small coin cells is [sic] what we call them up to, great energy storage batteries. So that also, includes electric vehicle batteries, grid energy storage cell phones, laptops; almost anything that you could imagine,” says Torres-Castro.

「我們的工作範圍從非常小的電池到手錶中的電池。非常小的紐帶電池[原文如此]就是我們所說的「偉大的儲能電池」。這還包括電動車電池、電網儲能手機、筆記型電腦；幾乎任何你能想像的東西，」托雷斯-卡斯特羅說。

The lab is currently focused on electric vehicle batteries, which are high-voltage lithium-ion. It’s the same technology that powers most personal electronics, just at a much bigger scale. Their high performance and low self-discharge make them great solutions, especially for EVs, but when they fail, they can cause major damage and injury, and while there are sensors to alert consumers of a threat, there’s very little time they will have if a battery is about to go.

該實驗室目前專注於電動車電池，即高壓鋰離子電池。大多數個人電子產品都採用相同的技術，只是規模大得多。它們的高性能和低自放電使其成為出色的解決方案，特別是對於電動車而言，但當它們發生故障時，可能會造成重大損壞和傷害，雖然有感測器可以提醒消費者存在威脅，但他們幾乎沒有時間來應付電池即將耗盡。

“The reality is right now, we’re looking on the order of minutes,” says Alex Bates. He is a research scientist in the BAT Lab and he says the goal of their work is to turn those minutes of warning into hours, days, and even weeks.

「現在的現實是，我們正在考慮幾分鐘的時間，」亞歷克斯貝茨說。他是 BAT 實驗室的研究科學家，他說他們的工作目標是將這些分鐘的警告變成幾小時、幾天甚至幾週。

“They start off with a lot of gas generation. So there’s going to be a lot of gas that comes out of the compartment or the cell. And that can, of course, make ingress into the cabin or things like that. But the worst type of failures are the abrupt failures that cause fire and flame jets to come out of the battery pack. Passengers are typically usually shielded by the pack itself, but it’s still a concern,” Bates says.

「它們一開始會產生大量氣體。所以會有大量氣體從隔間或電池中逸出。當然，這可以進入機艙或類似的地方。但最嚴重的故障類型是突然故障，導致電池組起火和噴出火焰。乘客通常會受到背包本身的保護，但這仍然是一個問題，」貝茨說。

While EV car fires are less frequent than gas-powered vehicles, the threat is still there, especially for first responders called out to a crash. EV batteries aren’t a solid brick of energy. They function more as a network of smaller batteries within a large housing. If one of those cells has a “thermal runaway,” which is a fancy way of saying a cell catches fire, it could trigger a chain reaction that can engulf the vehicle in minutes.

雖然電動車起火的頻率低於汽油動力汽車，但威脅仍然存在，特別是對於接到事故報警的急救人員來說。電動車電池並不是一塊堅固的能源。它們的功能更像是大型外殼內較小電池的網路。如果其中一個電池出現「熱失控」（這是電池著火的一種奇特說法），它可能會引發連鎖反應，在幾分鐘內吞噬車輛。

The BAT Lab is developing sensors that can detect the earliest signs of failure, thereby giving car owners and mechanics a heads-up before disaster strikes. “Our goal is to do a survey of available techniques now that maybe are too large and cumbersome to fit in an EV at this point in time. But the idea is that that technology if it’s proven, will be able to shrink down and fit into an EV,” says Bates.

BAT 實驗室正在開發能夠檢測最早故障跡象的感測器，從而在災難發生之前為車主和機械師提供預警。 「我們的目標是對目前可用的技術進行調查，這些技術可能太大且太笨重，無法及時安裝到電動車中。但我們的想法是，如果這項技術得到驗證，將能夠縮小尺寸並適合電動車，」貝茨說。

Testing includes heating the batteries to the point that they catch on fire, piercing them with nails, crushing them with hammers, over-charging, discharging, and even submerging them in water and Torres-Castro says all that destructive work is paying off.

測試包括將電池加熱到著火的程度、用釘子刺穿電池、用錘子敲碎電池、過度充電、放電，甚至將電池浸入水中，托雷斯-卡斯特羅表示，所有破壞性工作都得到了回報。

“We are improving every day. So we are learning from past, failures, and we are developing strategies to mitigate those for sure. I will say we are moving in the right direction,” Torres-Castro says.

“我們每天都在進步。因此，我們正在從過去的失敗中吸取教訓，並且正在製定策略來緩解這些問題。我想說，我們正在朝著正確的方向前進。

Bates says that, if successful, their testing could find ways into EV batteries within the next few years.

貝茨表示，如果成功，他們的測試可能會在未來幾年內找到應用於電動車電池的方法。