• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.569-583
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• 2013

In this study, the simultaneous use of a multi-level converter (MLC) as a DC-motor drive and as an active battery cell balancer is investigated. MLCs allow each battery cell in a battery pack to be independently switched on and off, thereby enabling the potential non-uniform use of battery cells. By exploiting this property and the brake regeneration phases in the drive cycle, MLCs can balance both the state of charge (SoC) and temperature differences between cells, which are two known causes of battery wear, even without reciprocating the coolant flow inside the pack. The optimal control policy (OP) that considers both battery pack temperature and SoC dynamics is studied in detail based on the assumption that information on the state of each cell, the schedule of reciprocating air flow and the future driving profile are perfectly known. Results show that OP provides significant reductions in temperature and in SoC deviations compared with the uniform use of all cells even with uni-directional coolant flow. Thus, reciprocating coolant flow is a redundant function for a MLC-based cell balancer. A specific contribution of this paper is the derivation of a state-space electro-thermal model of a battery submodule for both uni-directional and reciprocating coolant flows under the switching action of MLC, resulting in OP being derived by the solution of a convex optimization problem.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2005.06a
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• pp.361-365
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• 2005

Since the fuel cell uses the hydrogen for its fuel. it has no emission and higher efficiency than an internal combustion engine. Also fuel cell is much quieter than engine generator and generates heat much less than engine generator. So it has advantage of Army's 'si lent watch' capability and the ability to operate undetected by the enemy. The fuel cell hybrid system combines a fuel cell power system with an ESS. The ESS (e.g., batteries or ultracapacitors) reduces the fuel cell's peak power and transient response requirements. It allows the fuel cell to operate more efficiently and recovery of vehicle energy during deceleration. The battery has high energy density, so it has the advantage regarding driving distance. However, it has a disadvantage considering dynamic characteristic because of low power density. One other hand. the ultracapacitor has higher power density, so it can handle sudden change or discharge of required power. Yet. it has lower energy density. so it will be bigger and heavier than the battery when it has the same energy. This paper proposes the power management strategy for multi-power source fuel cell hybrid system. which is applied with the merits of both battery and ultra capacitor by using both of them simultaneous.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SC
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• v.46 no.6
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• pp.21-27
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• 2009

As portable electronic systems being used more often, it becomes a more important issue to lengthen the lifetime of the power battery of the system, for instance, by developing batteries of a higher efficiency. A simple as well as practical method to lengthen the lifetime is to use multiple batteries that are connected in parallel. But in this paper we present a new idea in using multiple batteries, with which the residual energy of the battery can be used in the sense of recycling. The idea is based on a usual phenomenon that a battery cell that has been used until its voltage has dropped below a reference level may still have some residual energy, due to which the voltage can recover when the cell takes a rest for a while. As a practical realization scheme of this idea, a multi-cell configuration method with a cell selection switch is introduced, and its feasibility has been examined by performing experimental observations on the behavior of battery discharge. It has been found that the lifetime of an Alkaline primary battery cell can be lengthened approximately by one or two hours with the proposed method.

• Journal of Electrical Engineering and Technology
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• v.12 no.5
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• pp.1812-1820
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• 2017

This paper analyzes a symmetric active cell balancer for a battery management system. The considered cell balancer uses a forward converter in which the circuit structure is symmetric. This cell-balancing method uses fewer switches and is simpler than the previously proposed active cell-balancing circuits. Active power switches of this cell-balancing circuit operate simultaneously with the same pulse width modulation signals. Therefore, this cell-balancing circuit requires less time to be balanced than a previous bidirectional-forward-converter-based cell balancer. This paper analyzes the operational principles and modes of this cell balancer with computer-based circuit simulation results as well as experimental results in which each unbalanced cell is equalized with this cell balancer. The maximum power transfer efficiency of the investigated cell balancer was 87.5% from the experimental results. In addition to the experimental and analytical results, this paper presents the performance of this symmetric active cell-balancing method.

• Proceedings of the KIPE Conference
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• 2010.07a
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• pp.420-421
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• 2010

In this paper, a multi-module selective battery equalizer for series-connected Li-ion battery pack is proposed. Selective Equalizer (SE) scheme achieves smaller volume and lighter weight than individual cell equalizer (ICE) by minimizing the part count of bulky circuit element. However, SE scheme shows slow balancing speed when the voltage imbalance simultaneously occurs in more than one cell. The proposed multi-module overcomes the problem by employing multiple power converters. Prototype hardware is implemented and experimented with 14Ah battery cells to validate the performance of the proposed equalizer.

• Journal of ILASS-Korea
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.69-79
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• 2017

When designing a redox flow battery system, compression of battery stack is required to prevent leakage of electrolyte and to reduce contact resistance between cell components. In addition, stack compression leads to deformation of the porous carbon electrode, which results in lower porosity and smaller cross-sectional area for electrolyte flow. In this paper, we investigate the effects of electrode compression on the cell performance by applying multi-dimensional, transient model of all-vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB). Simulation result reveals that large compression leads to greater pressure drop throughout the electrodes, which requires large pumping power to circulate electrolyte while lowered ohmic resistance results in better power capability of the battery. Also, cell compression results in imbalance between anolyte and catholyte and convective crossover of vanadium ions through the separator due to large pressure difference between negative and positive electrodes. Although it is predicted that the battery power is quickly improved due to the reduced ohmic resistance, the capacity decay of the battery is accelerated in the long term operation when the battery cell is compressed. Therefore, it is important to optimize the battery performance by taking trade-off between power and capacity when designing VRFB system.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Power Electronics
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.247-255
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• 2018

This paper proposes a transformer design of a direct cell-to-cell active cell balancing circuit with a multi-winding transformer for battery management system (BMS) applications. The coupling coefficient of the multi-winding transformer and the output capacitance of MOSFETs significantly affect the balancing current transfer efficiency of the cell balancing operation. During the operation, the multi-winding transformer stores the energy charged in a specific source cell and subsequently transfers this energy to the target cell. However, the leakage inductance of the multi-winding transformer and the output capacitance of the MOSFET induce an abnormal energy transfer to the non-target cells, thereby degrading the transfer efficiency of the balancing current in each cell balancing operation. The impacts of the balancing current transfer efficiency deterioration are analyzed and a transformer design methodology that considers the coupling coefficient is proposed to enhance the transfer efficiency of the balancing current. The efficiency improvements resulting from the selection of an appropriate coupling coefficient are verified by conducting a simulation and experiment with a 1 W prototype cell balancing circuit.

• Journal of IKEEE
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.324-329
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• 2011

In recent years, the performance and functions of portable devices has increased. so it requires more power efficiency and energy density while using the battery for a long time. therefore Battery pack which are made up from several battery cells in series in order to achieve higher operating voltage is being used. when using a Li-ion battery, we need a protection circuit to protect from overcharge, over discharge, high temperature and over current. Also, when using battery pack, we need to Cell voltage balancing circuit that each cell in tune with the balancing. In this paper, the proposed IC is applicable by mobile devices as well as E-bike, hybrid vehicles, electric vehicles, and is expected to contribute to the development of domestic PMIC.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Power Electronics
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.160-166
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• 2015

This study proposes an improved cell balancing circuit for fast equalization among lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries. A simple voltage sensorless charge balancing circuit has been proposed in the past. This cell balancing circuit automatically transfers energy from high-to low-voltage battery cells. However, the circuit requires a switch with low on-resistance because the balancing speed is limited by the on-resistance of the switch. Balancing speed decreases as the voltage difference among the battery cells decrease. In this study, the balancing speed of the cell balancing circuit is enhanced by using the auxiliary circuit, which boosts the balancing current. The charging current is determined by the nominal battery cell voltage and thus, the balancing speed is almost constant despite the very small voltage differences among the batteries. Simulation results are provided to verify the validity of the proposed cell balancing circuit.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Power Electronics
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.343-349
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• 2020

This study proposes a new single inductor converter for DC grid systems. A conventional system is composed of two independent converters for controlling battery and load. This system is simple but it has two inductors that affect power density and efficiency. The proposed converter can reduce the number of inductors by integrating the two converters and relieve voltage stress on switches by using a battery switching cell. Accordingly, power density and efficiency can be improved using a single inductor and lower voltage-rated switches. A prototype of a 500 W converter is built, and each mode is experimented on to confirm the validity of the proposed converter.