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Bad battery design responsible for Boeing Dreamliner grounding, expert says
Fox News ^ | 1/18/13 | Jeremy A. Kaplan

Posted on 01/18/2013 12:56:33 PM PST by Ron C.

A charred lithium ion battery at the center of the worldwide grounding of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner showed evidence of “thermal runaway” -- which is indicative of a design problem, experts tell FoxNews.com.

The All Nippon Airways plane made an emergency landing Wednesday morning in western Japan after its pilots smelled something burning and received a cockpit warning of battery problems. Nearly all 50 of the 787s in use around the world have since been grounded.

The battery’s burned insides indicate it operated at a voltage above its design limit, a Japanese investigator said Friday. That’s a clear sign of an out-of-control chemical reaction, explained Reginald Tomkins, a professor of chemical engineering at New Jersey Institute of Technology.

(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Front Page News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: aerospace; boeing
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To: Ol' Dan Tucker

Thanks much - interesting stuff! Now I wonder if they’ll ever find out what caused it. (Over or under charged?)


41 posted on 01/18/2013 4:48:40 PM PST by Ron C.
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To: ltc8k6

So in short this was a starter battery (and a backup breaking battery) - if I read correctly. Sounds like the load for starting is greater than the battery is designed for - if after starting the engines, it has to come into play too soon afterward for breaking. Too much demand for too small a battery perhaps?


42 posted on 01/18/2013 4:58:58 PM PST by Ron C.
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To: Ron C.
Thanks much - interesting stuff! Now I wonder if they’ll ever find out what caused it. (Over or under charged?)

You're welcome.

43 posted on 01/18/2013 5:02:46 PM PST by Ol' Dan Tucker (People should not be afraid of the government. Government should be afraid of the people)
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To: Ron C.

Some good comments in this thread. I enjoy ‘technical discussions’ and learn something every time I do. Ping for more reading later...


44 posted on 01/18/2013 5:09:48 PM PST by SueRae (It isn't over. In God We Trust.)
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To: Ol' Dan Tucker

“They definitely won’t last the life of the airplane, which is 20-30 years.”

Not if the Lithium battery catches on fire, which was the unspoken punchline.


45 posted on 01/18/2013 5:45:24 PM PST by RFEngineer
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To: Ol' Dan Tucker
They definitely won't last the life of the airplane, which is 20-30 years.

I think that the point here is that the 787 lifespan is going to be measured in weeks. Hence, these batteries are certainly going to last for the life of the aircraft.

46 posted on 01/18/2013 8:45:49 PM PST by tpmintx (Gun free zones are hunting preserves for unarmed people.)
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To: Ron C.

It’s normally not used unless other power sources are not available.

It would be a bit unusual to start the APU or the main engines with the batteries.

It was probably last done when they were testing the planes.


47 posted on 01/19/2013 5:11:03 AM PST by ltc8k6
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To: pabianice
I worked on the Boeing 787, software side. The amount of paperwork we had to do was cumbersome to the point of being comical. We had to account for EVERYTHING in testing and certification work ant it amounted to 10x the amount of time it took to actually write the software. Boeing is right, a change like a battery will require months of retesting.

Boeing and the passengers are blessed the incidents weren't more serious.
48 posted on 01/21/2013 7:45:00 AM PST by DarkSavant
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