{"schema_version":1,"experiment_id":"eoa_inverse_innovation_exp09_archetype_breadth150_20260804","cell_id":"flow_diversion_or_rerouting__chemistry_materials","arm":"BREADTH_PROBE_ONE_SHOT","candidate_id":"flow_diversion_or_rerouting__chemistry_materials__P1","proposal_index":1,"version":0,"title":"Hotspot-Avoiding Charge Routing Across Segmented Battery Electrodes","problem":"During charging of a graphite-based laboratory cell, a locally cold, resistive, or poorly wetted electrode sector can approach a lithium-plating-risk condition before the rest of the electrode. A cell-wide current command continues sending current through that impaired sector even though other independently addressable sectors may remain within approved electrochemical limits.","actors":["Electrochemist who defines local voltage, temperature, and current-density limits","Battery test engineer who operates the segmented-cell fixture","Real-time controller that reads sector signals and commands the switching matrix","Laboratory safety officer who approves the test envelope and stop conditions"],"observable_state":"A reference electrode and segmented current collectors expose sector-level current and potential. A sector is marked impaired when its local anode-potential margin crosses a predefined conservative threshold, corroborated by either abnormal temperature change or pulse-impedance response, while at least one other sector retains validated current-acceptance margin. The controller logs every health signal, eligibility decision, switch command, and delivered charge.","consequence":"If charging continues through the locally impaired sector, reaction current can remain concentrated where metallic deposition or parasitic reactions are most plausible, creating spatially uneven material-state change and potentially initiating localized degradation even while cell-average voltage and temperature remain acceptable.","affected_objective":"Preserve the admitted charging function through electrochemically eligible electrode area while keeping every active sector within approved potential, temperature, and current-density bounds.","intervention":"Build a laboratory cell whose working-electrode current collector is divided into independently switched sectors sharing the same electrolyte and counter-electrode. When one sector becomes locally ineligible, isolate that sector and reassign only its current fraction to prequalified healthy sectors through current-limited channels. Admit the reassigned fraction only when alternate sectors have measured acceptance margin; otherwise reduce or stop total current. Apply hysteresis and a minimum dwell time before reentry, and continuously check total charge accounting, alternate-sector conditions, and edge-current concentration.","structural_mapping":[{"archetype_element":"Identifiable flow","domain_realization":"Externally supplied electronic charging current and its coupled lithium-ion reaction flux through each electrode sector."},{"archetype_element":"Problematic current path","domain_realization":"The electronic-to-ionic reaction pathway through a sector exhibiting a local plating-risk signal."},{"archetype_element":"Path health signal","domain_realization":"Sector-level anode-potential margin corroborated by local temperature or pulse-impedance response."},{"archetype_element":"Alternate viable paths","domain_realization":"Independently contacted electrode sectors that remain inside approved electrochemical limits and have validated spare current-acceptance margin."},{"archetype_element":"Routing boundary and rule","domain_realization":"A current-limited switching matrix isolates an ineligible sector and assigns its fraction only to eligible sectors."},{"archetype_element":"Destination invariant","domain_realization":"Accepted charge is stored through the same intended electrode reaction without using a sector outside its safety and integrity bounds."},{"archetype_element":"Feedback and route revision","domain_realization":"Sector signals are reevaluated during the pulse; hysteresis permits later reentry or triggers further diversion or shutdown."}],"mechanism_mapping":[{"mechanism_slug":"bypass_routing","role":"Routes charging current around a locally impaired electrode sector instead of continuing through it or immediately abandoning the entire charge pulse.","counterfactual_removal":"Without sector bypass, the controller can only continue charging the impaired path or change current for the whole cell."},{"mechanism_slug":"path_health_signal","role":"Makes each sector condition observable and determines whether it is an eligible source-to-storage path.","counterfactual_removal":"Without a local health signal, diversion would be blind and could merely move current toward an equally unsafe sector."},{"mechanism_slug":"controlled_reentry","role":"Uses recovery margin, hysteresis, and minimum dwell time before reconnecting an isolated sector.","counterfactual_removal":"Without controlled reentry, noisy threshold crossings could cause route flapping and repeated current transients."}],"causal_chain":["A spatial asymmetry makes one electrode sector approach its approved local electrochemical limit before neighboring sectors.","Sector-level sensing marks that path ineligible while distinguishing other sectors with acceptance margin.","The switching matrix removes the impaired sector from the active current topology.","Current-limited channels offer the displaced fraction to eligible alternate sectors.","Coupled ionic reaction flux follows the reassigned electronic current into those sectors, preserving only the charge that can be accepted within bounds.","Continuous monitoring detects alternate-sector overload, shared downstream constraints, accounting errors, or oscillation.","The controller maintains the diversion, revises it, reduces total current, or halts according to the logged safety rule."],"baseline":"Operate the same instrumented segmented cell with all sectors continuously connected under a conventional cell-wide constant-current command and cell-level voltage and temperature cutoffs. Record sector currents and potentials, but do not perform local isolation or reallocation.","nearest_rivals":["Cell-wide current tapering when any local or global limit is approached","Complete charge interruption followed by rest or cooling","Static equal-current distribution across segmented electrode sectors","Passive electrode or current-collector redesign intended to homogenize current density","Thermal management that removes the local temperature asymmetry without changing the current path"],"remaining_contrastive_claim":"The candidate treats local electrochemical path eligibility as the routing variable: it removes a specifically impaired sector and conditionally sends that sector's current fraction through independently monitored alternate sectors. Unlike global tapering or shutdown, it attempts path substitution; unlike static equalization, diversion is triggered by path impairment. It must halt or reduce current when no alternate sector is viable.","authority_safety":{"decision_authority":"The electrochemist and laboratory safety officer jointly approve chemistry-specific limits, corroboration rules, maximum diversion fraction, and test termination criteria; the controller may act only within those fixed settings.","authorized_first_step":"Run low-energy pulses in one shielded, instrumented three-sector laboratory half-cell or equivalent test fixture under an approved conservative charge envelope.","excluded_actions":["Bypassing a commercial battery-management system","Testing in deployed cells, modules, vehicles, or unattended equipment","Charging beyond the laboratory's approved voltage, temperature, current, or capacity limits","Allowing the controller to invent or relax safety thresholds","Reconnecting an impaired sector solely to preserve charge throughput","Interpreting the first test as evidence of battery safety, cycle-life improvement, or deployment readiness"],"halt_rollback":"Open all sector channels and stop charging if no alternate path is eligible, signals disagree beyond tolerance, any hard cell or sector limit is reached, delivered-current accounting fails, switching oscillates, or an alternate sector loses margin. Place the cell in its approved safe state and require manual review before any resumed baseline or diversion test."},"negative_tests":{"strongest_counterevidence":"The local warning signal may reflect a cell-wide electrolyte, temperature, or state-of-charge constraint rather than an independently avoidable sector path; in that case reassignment would reproduce the risk in alternate sectors or intensify it at segment boundaries.","problem_falsifier":"Under deliberately imposed spatial asymmetry, sector-resolved measurements show no stable, independently impaired path before the cell-wide limit, or every apparent local event coincides with loss of acceptance margin in all sectors.","intervention_falsifier":"Opening the impaired sector does not produce measurable, accountable current transfer to the selected healthy sectors within the switching interval, or the transfer causes an alternate sector to cross its limit, excessive edge-current concentration, unstable switching, or loss of admitted-charge accounting.","risks":["Overload migration into alternate sectors","A hidden shared electrolyte or counter-electrode bottleneck that makes the paths nonindependent","Current crowding and new reaction hotspots at segmentation boundaries","Noisy or stale local signals causing false diversion or route flapping","Switch failure leaving an impaired sector energized","Spatial state-of-charge imbalance that persists after the pulse","Potential, temperature, or impedance proxies failing to identify actual lithium deposition","Added leads, switches, and segmentation altering the electrochemistry being measured","A temporary diversion rule becoming an unreviewed operating default","Incorrectly treating preserved charge throughput as proof of reduced material damage"]},"next_evidence_step":"In one shielded three-sector laboratory cell, impose a reversible asymmetry on one sector, such as controlled local cooling, and apply ten matched low-energy charge pulses with routing disabled and ten with routing enabled in interleaved order. Pre-register sector eligibility thresholds, maximum reassigned current, dwell time, and stop rules. Evaluate only whether the impaired sector is reproducibly identified, its current is removed, the displaced current is accounted for in eligible sectors without threshold violations or oscillation, and the commanded total charge is either preserved within the approved envelope or explicitly curtailed. Do not infer long-term damage reduction from this test.","prior_art_status":"UNSEARCHED","diversity_from_prior_proposals":"No comparison with prior proposals was performed under runtime isolation. This candidate realizes rerouting as conditional redistribution of coupled electronic and ionic reaction flux among independently monitored electrode sectors.","revision_record":{"parent_version":null,"progress_targets_addressed":["Initial one-shot construction of a concrete chemistry-and-materials problem","Explicit preservation of the archetype's path impairment, alternate-path viability, routing, monitoring, and revision structure","Operational safety and falsification boundaries"],"conceptual_changes":["None; this is the initial version."],"operational_changes":["None; this is the initial version."],"evidence_changes":["Prior art remains unsearched; only a bounded first experiment is specified."],"claim_changes":["No novelty, prevalence, demand, safety, or effect-size claim is made."]}}