Increased Performance of Battery Packs by Active Equalization

Battery packs for most applications are series strings of electrochemical cells. Due to manufacturing variations, temperature differences, and aging, the individual cells perform differently. When a complete pack is charged and discharged as a single two-terminal circuit element, some cells are chronically overcharged, undercharged, or overdischarged, all of which act to reduce cell life. The performance and life of the complete pack is limited by the weakest cell. Many methods have been proposed and explored to mitigate this problem. In the present work, a switched-capacitor converter is shown to be a simple and effective method to maintain equal cell or monoblock charge conditions. Design criteria are discussed

Design Space Evaluation for Resonant and Hard-charged Switched Capacitor Converters

USB Power Delivery enables a fixed ratio converter to operate over a wider range of output voltages by varying the input voltage. Of the DC/DC step-down converters powered from this type of USB, the hard-charged Switched Capacitor circuit is of interest to industry for its potential high power density. However implementation can be limited by circuit efficiency. In fully resonant mode, the efficiency can be improved while also enabling current regulation. This expands the possible applications into battery chargers and eliminates the need for a two-stage converter.In this work, the trade-off in power loss and area between the hard-charged and fully resonant switched capacitor circuit is explored using a technique that remains agnostic to inductor technology. The loss model for each converter is presented as well as discussion on the restrained design space due to parasitics in the passive components. The results are validated experimentally using GaN-based prototype converters and the respective design spaces are analyzed

A Novel Application of Zero-Current-Switching Quasiresonant Buck Converter for Battery Chargers

The main purpose of this paper is to develop a novel application of a resonant switch converter for battery chargers. A zero-current-switching (ZCS) converter with a quasiresonant converter (QRC) was used as the main structure. The proposed ZCS dc–dc battery charger has a straightforward structure, low cost, easy control, and high efficiency. The operating principles and design procedure of the proposed charger are thoroughly analyzed. The optimal values of the resonant components are computed by applying the characteristic curve and electric functions derived from the circuit configuration. Experiments were conducted using lead-acid batteries. The optimal parameters of the resonance components were determined using the load characteristic curve diagrams. These values enable the battery charger to turn on and off at zero current, resulting in a reduction of switching losses. The results of the experiments show that when compared with the traditional pulse-width-modulation (PWM) converter for a battery charger, the buck converter with a zero- current-switching quasiresonant converter can lower the temperature of the activepower switch

Series Resonant Switched Capacitor Converter for Electric Vehicle Lithium-Ion Battery Cell Voltage Equalization

Extending the lifetime of the battery system of the Electric Vehicles will affect the economic feasibility of the vehicle. Connecting the battery cells in series raise the problem of imbalance voltages of the cells caused by Difference of internal resistance, imbalanced SoC, gradients of ambient temperature of the battery pack during charging and discharging. The commercial solution for this problem is shunting the cell with extra charge to a dissipative resistor and gets rid of the extra charge as heat. This thesis proposes the use of Serial Resonant Switched Capacitor Converter for battery Cell Voltage equalization, which allows the extra charge to be transferred to other cell instead of dissipated it as heat. The thesis can be divided into five parts: the first part is introduction to the lithium-ion battery system, estimation of the State of Charge and battery modeling; the second part is a review for the switching topologies that used for battery cell equalization; the third part is the modes of operation of the proposed converter, modeling and simulation. And also introducing the new concept of controlled switching which allow the use of current sharing technique to reduce the equalization time. The fourth part is building the prototype circuit and allows the microcontroller to tune the circuit to achieve the zero current switching and the last part is the conclusion and the future wor

Advanced Battery Technologies: New Applications and Management Systems

In recent years, lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) have been increasingly contributing to the development of novel engineering systems with energy storage requirements. LIBs are playing an essential role in our society, as they are being used in a wide variety of applications, ranging from consumer electronics, electric mobility, renewable energy storage, biomedical applications, or aerospace systems. Despite the remarkable achievements and applicability of LIBs, there are several features within this technology that require further research and improvements. In this book, a collection of 10 original research papers addresses some of those key features, including: battery testing methodologies, state of charge and state of health monitoring, and system-level power electronics applications. One key aspect to emphasize when it comes to this book is the multidisciplinary nature of the selected papers. The presented research was developed at university departments, institutes and organizations of different disciplines, including Electrical Engineering, Control Engineering, Computer Science or Material Science, to name a few examples. The overall result is a book that represents a coherent collection of multidisciplinary works within the prominent field of LIBs

A comprehensive review on Bidirectional traction converter for Electric vehicles

In this fast-changing environmental condition, the effect of fossil fuel in vehicle is a significant concern. Many sustainable sources are being studied to replace the exhausting fossil fuel in most of the countries. This paper surveys the types of electric vehicle’s energy sources and current scenario of the on-road electric vehicle and its technical challenges. It summarizes the number of state-of-the-art research progresses in bidirectional dc-dc converters and its control strategies reported in last two decades. The performance of the various topologies of bidirectional dc-dc converters is also tabulated along with their references. Hence, this work will present a clear view on the development of state-of-the-art topologies in bidirectional dc-dc converters. This review paper will be a guide for the researchers for selecting suitable bidirectional traction dc-dc converters for electric vehicle and it gives the clear picture of this research field