Thermal analysis and management of lithium-titanate batteries

Battery electric vehicles and hybrid electric vehicles demand batteries that can store large amounts of energy in addition to accommodating large charge and discharge currents without compromising battery life. Lithium-titanate batteries have recently become an attractive option for this application. High current thresholds allow these cells to be charged quickly as well as supply the power needed to drive such vehicles. These large currents generate substantial amounts of waste heat due to loss mechanisms arising from the cell's internal chemistry and ohmic resistance. During normal vehicle operation, an active cooling system must be implemented to maintain a safe cell temperature and improve battery performance and life. This paper outlines a method to conduct thermal analysis of lithium-titanate cells under laboratory conditions. Thermochromic liquid crystals were implemented to instantaneously measure the entire surface temperature field of the cell. The resulting temperature measurements were used to evaluate the effectiveness of an active cooling system developed and tested in our laboratory for the thermal management of lithium-titanate cells.     

Experimental validation for Li-ion battery modeling using Extended Kalman Filters

The battery management systems (BMS) is an essential emerging component of both electric and hybrid electric vehicles (HEV) alongside with modern power systems. With the BMS integration, safe and reliable battery operation can be guaranteed through the accurate determination of the battery state of charge (SOC), its state of health (SOH) and the instantaneous available power. Therefore, undesired power fade and capacity loss problems can be avoided. Because of the electrochemical actions inside the battery, such emerging storage energy technology acts differently with operating and environment condition variations. Consequently, the SOC estimation mechanism should cope with the probable changes and uncertainties in the battery characteristics to ensure a permanent precise SOC determination over the battery lifetime.This paper aims to study and design the BMS for the Li-ion batteries. For this purpose, the system mathematical equations are presented. Then, the battery electrical model is developed. By imposing known charge/discharge current signals, all the parameters of such electrical model are identified using voltage drop measurements. Then, the extended kalman filter (EKF) methodology is employed to this nonlinear system to determine the most convenient battery SOC. This methodology is experimentally implemented using C language through micro-controller. The proposed BMS technique based on EKF is experimentally validated to determine the battery SOC values correlated to those reached by the Coulomb counting method with acceptable small errors.     

Experimental investigation on the online fuzzy energy management of hybrid fuel cell/battery power system for UAVs

The hybrid powerplant combining a fuel cell and a battery has become one of the most promising alternative power systems for electric unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). To enhance the fuel efficiency and battery service life, highly effective and robust online energy management strategies are needed in real applications.In this work, an energy management system is designed to control the hybrid fuel cell and battery power system for electric UAVs. To reduce the weight, only one programmable direct-current to direct-current (dcdc) converter is used as the critical power split component to implement the power management strategy. The output voltage and current of the dcdc is controlled by an independent energy management controller. An executable process of online fuzzy energy management strategy is proposed and established. According to the demand power and battery state of charge, the online fuzzy energy management strategy produces the current command for the dcdc to directly control the output current of the fuel cell and to indirectly control the charge/discharge current of the battery based on the power balance principle.Another two online strategies, the passive control strategy and the state machine strategy, are also employed to compare with the proposed online fuzzy strategy in terms of the battery management and fuel efficiency. To evaluate and compare the feasibility of the online energy management strategies in application, experiments with three types of missions are carried out using the hybrid power system test-bench, which consists of a commercial fuel cell EOS600, a Lipo battery, a programmable dcdc converter, an energy management controller, and an electric load. The experimental investigation shows that the proposed online fuzzy strategy prefers to use the most power from the battery and consumes the least amount of hydrogen fuel compared with the other two online energy management strategies.     

In situ observation of lithium dendrite on the electrode in a lithium-ion battery

锂离子电池尽管已成为便携式电子设备的主流电源,也是电动汽车、混合动力汽车等电源的主要选择之一,但依然存在使用过程中因形成锂枝晶而发生内短路的安全隐患。本文设计了一个宏微观实验研究商业用锂离子电池电极材料的充放电循环性能。在常温小电流充放电条件下,实时原位地观测锂枝晶的产生、生长、消融以及死锂残留等过程。实验结果揭示了锂枝晶不仅仅只是大电流过充或低温充电状态下的产物,常温常态小电流充电条件下依然能够生成锂枝晶。实验发现：锂枝晶出现在充电后期,随后直线伸长,尖端区域形貌保持不变;放电时,锂枝晶逐渐消融,尖端区域形貌依然不变,放电结束后电极上有死锂残留。     

High-rate,valve-regulated lead–acid batteries — suitable for hybrid electric vehicles?

The possibility of replacing, with electric drive systems, at least some of the internal-combustion engines currently employed in road vehicles is being actively pursued by all the world's major automobile manufacturing companies. Minimum on-road emissions would be achieved by the adoption of pure electric vehicles, but the somewhat limited range available between charges of the batteries has led to a serious evaluation of hybrid electric vehicles as an acceptable compromise. In hybrids, a small internal-combustion engine, operated at high efficiency, will consume less fuel and produce less emissions than would a regular internal-combustion engine, and will allow considerable range extension over the pure electric vehicle. Eventually, an electric system which employs a fuel cell may become affordable. It is likely that all three systems — the pure electric, the hybrid electric, and the fuel cell system — will require battery support, particularly to provide boost power for acceleration and hill climbing. Although more expensive battery systems are being vigorously developed in pursuit of greater range per charge, the benchmark against which these systems are compared remains the valve-regulated lead–acid (VRLA) battery.     

Battery algorithm verification and development using hardware-in-the-loop testing

Battery algorithms play a vital role in hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs), plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), extended-range electric vehicles (EREVs), and electric vehicles (EVs). The energy management of hybrid and electric propulsion systems needs to rely on accurate information on the state of the battery in order to determine the optimal electric drive without abusing the battery.In this study, a cell-level hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) system is used to verify and develop state of charge (SOC) and power capability predictions of embedded battery algorithms for various vehicle applications. Two different batteries were selected as representative examples to illustrate the battery algorithm verification and development procedure. One is a lithium-ion battery with a conventional metal oxide cathode, which is a power battery for HEV applications. The other is a lithium-ion battery with an iron phosphate (LiFePO₄) cathode, which is an energy battery for applications in PHEVs, EREVs, and EVs.The battery cell HIL testing provided valuable data and critical guidance to evaluate the accuracy of the developed battery algorithms, to accelerate battery algorithm future development and improvement, and to reduce hybrid/electric vehicle system development time and costs.     

Research of critical causes and improvement of energy storage system reliability in power electronic applications

In order to prevent the critical failures in lead acid batteries, the authors propose a new multistep current charge profile based on mathematical methods to calculate the charge current for each step according to the battery voltage variations and state of charge. The energy management system is developed in order to avoid the deep discharge that causes stratification of electrolyte, sulfating and deterioration of active mass. In addition, the electrodes corrosion and gassing phenomena are prevented by adopting a suitable charge cycle. In this paper, the causal tree analysis is used to identify the critical failure modes of battery and their causes in different applications such as uninterruptible power supply, renewable energy and hybrid electric vehicle. The identification of the degradation causes allows properly proposes some recommendations in order to extend the battery lifetime by adding suitable additives in the manufacturing process and adopting an appropriate charge cycle. The experimental result of the multistep current profile is realized with lead acid battery 90 Ah to investigate their efficiency to ensure the maximum battery reliability. This current profile avoids the corrosion phenomenon generated by overcharge and the sulfating phenomenon caused by an incomplete charge with a charging time depends on the number of the chosen step. Therefore, the multistep current profile is a suitable charge cycle that preserves the battery capacity and increases its lifetime.     

Research and development of maximum power transfer tracking system for solar cell unit by matching impedance

Employing the theorem that matching impedance produces maximum power transfer, the current study develops a low-cost and highly efficient “maximum power point tracker for a solar cell unit,” for the purpose of allowing a solar cell to achieve optimal power transfer under different solar intensities and temperatures. Circuit control takes a single-chip microprocessor as the core and the booster circuit design undergoes the solar cell charging operation even though the solar cell output voltage is lower than the rated storage battery voltage. Experiments conducted in this study prove that the tracker this study develops effectively enhances the utilization efficiency of a solar cell. When a solar cell is at an output voltage above 30% of the rated voltage, it can charge a storage battery. When it reaches above 80% of the rated voltage, its power conversion efficiency can reach above 85%. The charge and discharge management mechanism of the device also avoids excessive charge and discharge of the storage battery, and extends storage battery longevity.     

Hybrid electric vehicles and electrochemical storage systems — a technology push–pull couple

In the advance of fuel cell electric vehicles (EV), hybrid electric vehicles (HEV) can contribute to reduced emissions and energy consumption of personal cars as a short term solution. Trade-offs reveal better emission control for series hybrid vehicles, while parallel hybrid vehicles with different drive trains may significantly reduce fuel consumption as well. At present, costs and marketing considerations favor parallel hybrid vehicles making use of small, high power batteries. With ultra high power density cells in development, exceeding 1 kW/kg, high power batteries can be provided by adapting a technology closely related to consumer cell production. Energy consumption and emissions may benefit from regenerative braking and smoothing of the internal combustion engine (ICE) response as well, with limited additional battery weight. High power supercapacitors may assist the achievement of this goal. Problems to be solved in practice comprise battery management to assure equilibration of individual cell state-of-charge for long battery life without maintenance, and efficient strategies for low energy consumption.     

Development of nickel/metal-hydride batteries for EVs and HEVs

This paper is to introduce the nickel/metal-hydride (Ni/MH) batteries for electric vehicles (EVs) and hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) developed and mass-produced by our company. EV-95 for EVs enables a vehicle to drive approximately 200 km per charge. As the specific power is extremely high, more than 200 W/kg at 80% depth of discharge (DOD), the acceleration performance is equivalent to that of gasoline fuel automobiles. The life characteristic is also superior. This battery gives the satisfactory result of more than 1000 cycles in bench tests and approximately 4-year on-board driving. EV-28 developed for small EVs comprises of a compact and light battery module with high specific power of 300 W/kg at 80% DOD by introducing a new technology for internal cell connection. Meanwhile, our cylindrical battery for the HEV was adopted into the first generation Toyota Prius in 1997 which is the world’s first mass-product HEV, and has a high specific power of 600 W/kg. Its life characteristic was found to be equivalent to more than 100,000 km driving. Furthermore, a new prismatic module in which six cells are connected internally was used for the second generation Prius in 2000. The prismatic battery comprises of a compact and light battery pack with a high specific power of 1000 W/kg, which is approximately 1.7 times that of conventional cylindrical batteries, as a consequence of the development of a new internal cell connection and a new current collection structure.     

Performance Analysis of Plug-in Hybrid Passenger Vehicles

PHEVs （passenger plug-in hybrid electric vehicles） have shown significant fuel reduction potential. Furthermore, PHEVs can also improve longitudinal vehicle dynamics with respect to acceleration and engine elasticity. The objective of this study is to investigate potential of concurrent optimization of fuel efficiency and driving performance. For the studies, a backward vehicle model for a parallel PHEV was designed, where the power flow is calculated from the wheels to the propulsion units, the conventional ICE （internal combustion engine） and the EMG （electric motor/generator） unit. The hybrid drive train is according to a P2 layout, consequently the EMG is situated between the shifting clutch and the ICE. The implemented operation strategy distributes the power to both propulsion units depending on the vehicle speed, requested driving torque, the battery＇s SOC （state of charge） and SOP （state of power）. Additional information, such as the slope of the road, can be taken into account by the operation strategy. In the paper, the fuel saving potential as well as the longitudinal dynamics change of different PHEV configurations is presented as a function of battery capacity and EMG power. Consequently, applicable hybrid components can be defined. By using additional information of the environment like various sensor data, road slope amongst others, the fuel saving potential can be improved even more. By studying the dynamic model, the overall results of the backward model are confirmed. In conclusion, this study shows that it is possible to concurrently reduce fuel consumption and increase driving performance in PHEVs. The potential depends strongly on the configuration of the electric components and the implemented operation strategy. Consequently, the hybrid system configuration has to be chosen carefully and aligned to the vehicle performance.     

The power performance curve for engineering analysis of fuel cells

The power delivered by a fuel cell to an external load is controlled by the impedance of the external load. The power performance curve is a new metric that relates the power delivered to the external load to its impedance. The power delivered is 0 for both an open circuit and a short circuit (infinite and zero external impedance) and is a maximum when the external load impedance matches the internal resistance of the fuel cell. Fuel efficiency is 50% at maximum power output. Higher fuel efficiency is achieved when the load impedance is much greater than the internal resistance of the electrolyte. A simple equivalent circuit for the fuel cell consisting of a battery, diode and resistor captures the essential characteristics of a fuel cell as part of an electrical circuit and can be used to analyze of the response to changes in load. Simple circuit analysis can be employed to elucidate the power output and efficiency of large area fuel cells and fuel cell stacks. Non-uniformities in large area fuel cells create internal potential differences that drive internal currents dissipating energy. Non-uniformities in fuel cell stacks can drive low power cells into an electrolytic state, eventually leading to failure. The power performance curve simplifies analysis of control and operation of fuel cell systems.     

Solar photovoltaic charging of lithium-ion batteries

Solar photovoltaic (PV) charging of batteries was tested by using high efficiency crystalline and amorphous silicon PV modules to recharge lithium-ion battery modules. This testing was performed as a proof of concept for solar PV charging of batteries for electrically powered vehicles. The iron phosphate type lithium-ion batteries were safely charged to their maximum capacity and the thermal hazards associated with overcharging were avoided by the self-regulating design of the solar charging system. The solar energy to battery charge conversion efficiency reached 14.5%, including a PV system efficiency of nearly 15%, and a battery charging efficiency of approximately 100%. This high system efficiency was achieved by directly charging the battery from the PV system with no intervening electronics, and matching the PV maximum power point voltage to the battery charging voltage at the desired maximum state of charge for the battery. It is envisioned that individual homeowners could charge electric and extended-range electric vehicles from residential, roof-mounted solar arrays, and thus power their daily commuting with clean, renewable solar energy.     

Design and implementation of power battery charging and discharging detection system

电动汽车的快速增长带来的动力电池安全问题日趋成为行业关注的焦点,对动力电池快速安全检测成为目前市场的需求。本工作设计了一套基于以双向逆变器为主的硬件模块和C#.NET上位机软件模块的动力电池充放电检测系统。该系统检测对象为电动汽车动力电池和梯次动力电池,其特点为快速检测和深入检测。快速性表现在两分钟内检测出电池包绝缘安全、单体一致性等问题。深入性是对单体层面的诊断,根据直流内阻检测模块得到单体OCV和直流内阻分布图从而快速对电池一致性问题做诊断。每个检测模块的数据最终生成电子检测报告,同时也保存至Excel中,用于后期进一步分析。系统运行可靠,可为在储能领域的推广应用提供一定的参考。     

Review of design considerations and technological challenges for successful development and deployment of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles

Automobile drivetrain hybridization is considered as an important step in reducing greenhouse gases and related automotive emissions. However, current hybrid electric vehicles are a temporary solution on the way to zero emission road vehicles. Recently there has been a lot of interest in the concept of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, which have great potential to attain higher fuel economy and efficiency, with a longer range in pure electric propulsion mode. PHEVs represent the next generation of hybrid vehicles that bridges the gap between present hybrid electric vehicles and battery operated electric vehicles. In this paper a brief review of design considerations and selection of major components for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles is provided. This paper also focuses on the technological challenges ahead of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles in relation to its major components, which are reviewed in detail. The importance of economics and government support for the successful deployment of this plug-in hybrid technology in the near future to achieve national energy security is also discussed in the paper.     

Influence of cycling current and power profiles on the cycle life of lead/acid batteries

Batteries are assembled with positive plates of the novel strap grid tubular (SGTP) design described in a previous paper [1]. These batteries are subjected to four tests: (i) Peukert dependence determinations; (ii) classical galvanostatic cycling (5 h charge and 1 h discharge); (iii) EV-SFUDS, and (iv) EV-ECE-15 cycling tests. It has been established that the Peukert dependence curve of SGTP batteries is very close in profile to that for SLI batteries. This guarantees SGTP's batteries high power performance. These batteries endure over 950 cycles on galvanostatic cycling. When cycled according to the SFUDS power profile under a current load of 320 A/kg positive active mass during the 15th SFUDS step, SGTP batteries exhibit a cycle life of 350–450 cycles. If the current density during the 15th step is 190 A/kg PAM, the batteries endure over 600 charge/discharge cycles. The life of positive SGT plates is limited by power loss, but not by capacity. Similar results have also been obtained from ECE-15 cycle-life tests. On cycling SGTP batteries with a current load of 210 A/kg PAM during the 23rd ECE-15 step (the step during which maximum power output is demanded from the battery), they endure between 550 and 650 charge/discharge cycles. A summary of the test results obtained for two batches of experimental batteries indicates that there is a direct dependence between the SGTP battery cycle life and the maximum current density on discharge. Increasing the discharge current density decreases the battery life. It has also been established that the capacity on SFUDS (ECE-15) discharge declines gradually on cycling in favour of the residual galvanostatic capacity at 5 h rate of discharge (100% depth-of-discharge) which increases. This implies that two types of structures are formed in the positive plates on cycling: the first type ensuring high power output and the second type yielding low power but long cycle life. The higher the power delivered by the positive plate, the faster the conversion of the structure supporting this high power output into such yielding low power performance. EV-SFUDS: A simplified version of the Federal urban driving schedule for electric vehicle battery testing, US Department of Energy, USA, 1988, and ECE-15: a standard European test cycle, speed versus time.     

Analysis of safety performance of lithium-ion power battery during life cycle based on non-destructive testing

基于在不同条件下对车用三元锂离子动力电池的充放电循环试验，分析电池寿命衰减程度及其影响因素。利用X-ray无损检测技术，测试以不同倍率大小电流进行充放电循环前后三元锂离子动力电池的内部结构变化，并评价了电池寿命衰减和安全失效程度，为研究电池寿命衰减及安全失效提供了新的方法。在充放电循环周期过程中，随着电池容量的不断衰减，基于无损检测技术可以获得电池内部结构出现越来越明显的缺陷，说明电池的寿命衰减速度越来越大，其安全性也越来越差。以不同倍率大小电流进行充放电循环后，将不同SOH状态下内部结构的断层扫描图像进行对比，发现车用三元锂离子动力电池的内部结构发生了不同程度的变化，说明与循环前相比电池的使用寿命有不同幅度的衰减。     

A new approach of sizing battery energy storage system for smoothing the power fluctuations of a PV/wind hybrid system

In this paper, a new approach for optimally sizing the storage system employing the battery banks for the suppression of the output power fluctuations generated in the hybrid photovoltaic/wind hybrid energy system. At first, a novel multiple averaging technique has been used to find the smoothing power that has to be supplied by the batteries for the different levels of smoothing of output power. Then the battery energy storage system is optimally sized using particle swarm optimization according to the level of smoothing power requirement, with the constraints of maintaining the battery state of charge and keeping the energy loss within the acceptable limits. Two different case studies have been presented for different locations and different sizes of the hybrid systems in this work. The results of the simulation studies and detailed discussions are presented at the end to portrait the effectiveness of the proposed method for sizing of the battery energy storage system. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Carbon reactions and effects on valve-regulated lead-acid (VRLA) battery cycle life in high-rate, partial state-of-charge cycling

VRLA batteries in hybrid electric vehicles are operated at a partial state of charge with high current draws for acceleration and regenerative braking. Adding larger amounts of carbon particles to the negative plate material extends battery life. Water loss and increasing internal resistance are a cause of a subsequent failure mode that is related to the carbon and other organic additives in the negative plate. Previous studies of the composition and volume of gases vented from valve-regulated lead-acid (VRLA) batteries and acid-limited batteries at various temperatures and current levels are reviewed and used to develop an understanding of carbon reactions and their effects on battery state of health.     

Performance of 26650 Li-ion cells at elevated temperature under simulated PHEV drive cycles

Cylindrical (type: 26650) Li-ion cells (LiFePO₄ cathodes) currently used in the electric vehicles (EVs), plug-in hybrid electric vehicles etc. were subjected to simulated federal urban driving schedule at 25 and 50 °C for performance evaluation. Drive profiles (current versus time) for charge sustaining and charge depleting modes were derived from the federal urban driving schedule velocity profiles considering acceleration, regenerative braking, rolling resistance, drag force etc. for typical plug-in hybrid electric vehicles. In particular, the batteries were cycled extensively at 50 °C under charge sustaining as well as charge depleting modes to monitor capacity values, followed by analyzing the LiFePO₄ cathode material by X-ray diffraction analysis. The capacity degradation was found to be very significant in both the modes with 13 and 19% under charge sustaining and charge depleting modes after 337 and 1007 cycles, respectively at elevated temperature. High frequency resistance values measured by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy were found to increase significantly under high temperature cycling, leading to power fading. As evident from Rietveld analysis, phase change in LiFePO₄ is observed beyond 1000 cycles at elevated temperature under charge depleting mode, with the observation of FePO₄ from the powder diffraction data of the cathodes from the cycled cells. In addition, there was also significant change in crystallite size of the cathode active materials after charge/discharge cycling under charge depleting mode.