Abstract
AbstractIn electric vehicle applications, it is necessary to use series strings of batteries since the required voltage is higher than the one that can be obtained from a single battery. Due to several factors, imbalance of batteries in these battery systems is usual and an important factor that has to be taken into account. Many balancing methods have been developed with a lot of different advantages, but all of them also have a lot of disadvantages such as complexity and/or high cost, which are the common problems that can be found in most of these equalization methods. In the present work, a low cost and very simple equalization method is proposed, in which a novel control is applied to a shunting transistor topology. It allows the transistors to regulate the amount of current that goes through each battery cell in the string depending on their State of Charge (SOC), during the charging process. This control ensures that the least charged cells to be charged faster, and the most charged ones to be charged more slowly. Design criteria are discussed and simulation results are carried out in a generic battery low power application which proves the control method. Fast equalization with a low complexity and cost is obtained
Highlights
IntroductionThe research on electric vehicles has become of special interest for many reasons such as environmental awareness (which leads us to a more efficient transportation vehicles and Government incentives), continuous increase of the oil price due to the natural resource exhaustion and the instability in the Middle East, etc
Along the last years, the research on electric vehicles has become of special interest for many reasons such as environmental awareness, continuous increase of the oil price due to the natural resource exhaustion and the instability in the Middle East, etc
Most of applications for batteries need higher voltage than can be obtained from a single electrochemical battery and series strings of cells are used to meet voltage requirements in EVs [5]-[6]
Summary
The research on electric vehicles has become of special interest for many reasons such as environmental awareness (which leads us to a more efficient transportation vehicles and Government incentives), continuous increase of the oil price due to the natural resource exhaustion and the instability in the Middle East, etc. Different battery technologies have been studied and utilized for the EVs (Electric Vehicles), but new researches are developing the Lithium-ion batteries which are becoming the most viable option for portable and mobile energy storage applications, especially for EVs [2]-[4]. A battery system without a balancing technique can lead its cells to be overcharged, undercharged, or even overdischarged, and it takes special importance in Li-ion cells [7]-[9]. The reasons of this imbalance may be of two categories [10]: internal sources (manufacturing variance in physical volume, internal impedance and self-discharge rate) and external sources such as thermal difference across the pack
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