We need to monitor the individual cell voltages of a ~50 Li-ion battery string. [Each one is ~~4"*6"*10"] Seeing as how they'd furnish many amperes if shorted, we want to prevent that fate.
One short mode would be cell-to-cell, i.e. ~4V. The other would be worst-case, the whole string.
Thought about fusing, but want to consider resistors as current limit/fuses.
Higher value resistors will limit the possible current but raise the impedance and that makes the noise problem worse.
So my questions revolve around the fuse-like behavior of resistors. If you pull a watt through a 0.25 watt resistor, what's the MTBS {Mean Time Before Smoke}? Short of that, would the resistor likely change value?
In worst case, the resistor opens and {hopefully} interrupts the current. Given the only ~100V available, I can't see an issue with arcing after that event. {Any full-current short would vaporize the resistor lead after a few hundred ms anyhow.}
Any thoughts on this topic?