A cascaded transformer-based equalisation converter for series connected battery cells

Huaxia Zhan, Volker Pickert, Xin Xiang, Xiang Lu, Simon M. Lambert, Haimeng Wu

Research output: Contribution to conferencePaperpeer-review

5 Citations (Scopus)
69 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) and electric vehicles (EVs) have increased in popularity as they use rechargeable battery as energy source instead of petrol, furthermore, help to reduce the release of greenhouse gases. Generally, for applications such as EVs and HEVs, a battery pack may consist of hundreds individual cells batteries in order to meet voltage and energy capacity requirements. However, due to individual chemical characteristics and manufacturing tolerances each cell in a pack will have a slightly different capacity. The capacity of a cell also changes over time as the cell ages. During charging and discharging this leads to unbalanced voltages across the battery pack, and unchecked could result in over-charging/over-discharging for certain cells. This in turn can lead to cell and pack failure or even fire. Therefore, as part of the battery management system a process for voltage equalisation of cells throughout the stack is essential. This paper proposes a new cascaded multi-winding transformer based equalisation circuit topology which, compared to more traditional multi-winding transformer-based topologies is simpler in transformer construction and is therefore far easier to manufacture. The topology concept and operating principals are discussed followed by simulation results for the proposed system. In addition accelerated equalisation speed compared to existing solutions is demonstrated.

Original languageEnglish
Pages1-6
Number of pages6
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 10 Nov 2016
Externally publishedYes
Event8th IET International Conference on Power Electronics, Machines and Drives, PEMD 2016 - Glasgow, United Kingdom
Duration: 19 Apr 201621 Apr 2016

Conference

Conference8th IET International Conference on Power Electronics, Machines and Drives, PEMD 2016
Country/TerritoryUnited Kingdom
CityGlasgow
Period19/04/1621/04/16

Keywords

  • Cascaded multi-winding transformer
  • EVs
  • Voltage equalisation

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