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Title: Evaluating the ignition sensitivity of thermal battery heat pellets

Technical Report ·
DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/10185275· OSTI ID:10185275

Thermal batteries are activated by the ignition of heat pellets. If the heat pellets are not sensitive enough to the ignition stimulus, the thermal battery will not activate, resulting in a dud. Thus, to assure reliable thermal batteries, it is important to demonstrate that the pellets have satisfactory ignition sensitivity by testing a number of specimens. There are a number of statistical methods for evaluating the sensitivity of a device to some stimulus. Generally, these methods are applicable to the situation in which a single test is destructive to the specimen being tested, independent of the outcome of the test. In the case of thermal battery heat pellets, however, tests that result in a nonresponse do not totally degrade the specimen. This peculiarity provides opportunities to efficiently evaluate the ignition sensitivity of heat pellets. In this paper, a simple strategy for evaluating heat pellet ignition sensitivity (including experimental design and data analysis) is described. The relatively good asymptotic and small-sample efficiencies of this strategy are demonstrated.

Research Organization:
Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
DOE Contract Number:
AC04-76DP00789
OSTI ID:
10185275
Report Number(s):
SAND-93-0188; ON: DE94000350
Resource Relation:
Other Information: PBD: Sep 1993
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English