An improved and fast balancing algorithm for electric heavy commercial vehicles

Nowadays, the tendency towards electric vehicles is increasing and various studies are being carried out in order to eliminate the shortage of battery life. One way to improve battery life is to overcome imbalances between cells in battery packs. The imbalances due to structural differences arising from production and changing operating conditions reduce the utilization of available energy. Passive and active balancing methods are used in order to eliminate these imbalances. Due to the slow equalization speed and energy inefficiency of passive balancing circuits, the trend towards active balancing is increasing. In this paper, an active balancing system with a new balancing algorithm that features fast balancing, multiple charge transfers, and suitable for large battery packs used in electric heavy commercial vehicles is proposed to increase usable energy. To test the algorithm, battery module and bidirectional dc-dc converter based active balancing system simulation study has been performed in Matlab-Simulink. The performance of proposed algorithm is compared with other algorithms and simulation results show that the proposed algorithm has better balancing performance.

Automated summary

With the increasing trend of electric vehicles, research is being conducted to address battery life shortages. Active balancing systems are gaining popularity over passive balancing systems due to their faster equalization speed and increased energy efficiency. A new balancing algorithm has been proposed for large battery packs to improve usable energy, showing better balancing performance in simulation studies compared to other algorithms.