Research on serial lithium‐ion battery alternating discharge equalization control systems

Abstract

Abstract To improve the discharge equalization efficiency of the battery and prevent the occurrence of overdischarge, in this paper, the 18,650 ternary lithium battery is taken as the object of investigation, and an alternating equalization control system for the discharge process of serial cells is proposed. The system implements the alternating discharge of serial cells by switching on and off, using state of charge (SOC) as the equalization variable, and eventually completes the equalization control of the entire battery pack. Discharge simulations were performed in Matlab/Simulink for faulty and normal operating conditions of the battery pack, respectively. The findings indicate that even in the presence of a malfunction, the battery pack can continue to operate continuously for a while; in contrast, under ideal circumstances, the battery pack is capable of maintaining SOC balance throughout the discharge process. Eventually, five batteries are used to construct the experimental platform for the alternating equalization system. The battery pack can still perform selective discharge under fault conditions until the battery pack reaches the discharge cutoff condition. Under normal conditions, the maximum SOC difference of all five batteries can stabilize at about 1%. The experimental results show that the proposed equalization control system can achieve the equalization of battery discharge and prolong the discharge time, and can prevent the occurrence of battery over discharge.

Keywords

• active equalization
• alternating equalization control
• balanced control strategy
• lithium‐ion cells
• SOC estimation