Optimal Charging of Supercapacitors with Limited Charging Time

Abstract

Supercapacitors have recieved increasing attentions in emerging portable power applications. The charging process of supercapacitors significantly affects the performance of both supercapacitors and chargers. Considering the charging time of supercapacitors is typically limited in practical applications, in this paper, we propose an optimal charging method for supercapacits with the limited charging time. Firstly, we analyze existing cell balancing and charging circuits, and adopt the switched resistor circuit. Then, we design a user-interactive optimal charging method for supercapacitors where the charging time can be specified by the users. The energy efficiency maximization of the proposed charging method is proved rigorously. A simulation charging platform has been established to verify the effectiveness of the proposed charging method. The simulation results show that the proposed charging method can effectively improve the energy efficiency under charging time constraints when compared with existing methods.