Modular battery management system architecture for commercial vehicle applications

Abstract

In electric vehicles, the utmost is of the operation did the batteries provide energy storage. However, the rechargeable batteries can’t work alone, a BMS is very much needed, where the battery management system is a key component for operating the battery pack in its safe operating area. In this work, a new modular BMS architecture for commercial vehicle battery applications were proposed and the same was implemented considering a varying total input load voltage ranging from 500−730VDC. The monitor the individual battery cell (200 in series) was little complex work to design and implement for voltage and temperatures because of high voltage harnesses are required which increase the complexity, weight, and required volume to accommodate. The proposed architecture design and methodology work covers the complete architectural design of a modular automotive BMS in which each battery module has its own cell monitoring unit (CMU) with a flexible printed circuit board (PCB) to monitor the individual cell voltage and temperatures at various locations inside the battery module. These CMU will communicate with the Master Controller Unit (MCU) to control the battery operations in its safe operating area over isolated Serial Peripheral Interface (isoSPI) communications reducing the bulky low-voltage wiring harnesses and further reducing the weight and complexity.