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Analysis of battery management system issues in electric vehicles

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ICRDREIOT2020 IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 994 (2020) 012013 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/994/1/012013

Analysis of battery management system issues in electric

vehicles

1
V Karkuzhali, 2Dr.P Rangarajan,3Dr.V Tamilselvi and 4P Kavitha
1
Assistant Professor Department of EEE, R.M.D Engineering College, Chennai,
Tamilnadu, India
2
Professor Department of EEE, R.M.D Engineering College, Chennai, Tamilnadu,
India
3
H.O.D Department of EEE, R.M.D Engineering College, Chennai, Tamilnadu, India
4
Assistant Professor Department of EEE, R.M.D Engineering College, Chennai,
Tamilnadu, India
1
Vkarkuzhali.eee@rmd.ac.in,2 hodeee@rmd.ac.in,3
prr.eee@rmd.ac.in4kavitha.eee@rmd.ac.in

Abstract. Battery technology has dramatically advanced over a decade and many high
performance batteries are being developed. Electric vehicles (EV) require high power batteries
with suitable battery management systems (BMS) for safe and reliable operations. Intention of
this paper is to discuss about the batteries used in electric vehicles and the key issues of battery
management systems and to compare the Lithium ion (Li-ion) battery & Nickel metal hydride
battery in terms of aging and effect of temperature using their state of charge (SOC) and open
circuit voltage (OCV).

1. Introduction
Electric vehicles are under constant research area and researchers keep working on it for reduced fuel
usage and to reduce CO2 emission. EVs are classified as hybrid electric vehicles and battery electric
vehicles. Batteries play a major role in smooth running of EVs. High power batteries require proper
care and they should be sensed for their voltage, current and power. Improper operation of batteries
like over charge, over discharge, over current, short circuit and extreme temperature might throw
problems to the user. Hence proper BMS helps in overcoming these issues and provides a safety drive
for electric vehicles.
Key technologies in the BMS of EV include battery modelling, state estimation, charging and
discharging. A good BMS should safely protect the driver/operator by detecting unsafe operating
conditions, protecting the cells from damage in failure cases, prolongs the life of battery in normal
operating region and should inform the user about the battery details and its status of operation.[3]This
paper also explains about the different batteries and their electrochemistry. A battery has to be
charged, discharged and its parameters are to be estimated well for its good maintenance. The
measurable variables such as voltage, current, temperature that varies with state of charge are required
for accurate and robust SOC estimation. This paper explains the variation of OCV and internal
resistance of the battery at different SOC of Lithium ion battery and NiMH battery. Variation of its
internal resistance curve at room temperature gives us the need for modelling a battery based on
thermal behaviour.
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ICRDREIOT2020 IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 994 (2020) 012013 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/994/1/012013

2. Battery types
There are two different categories of battery cells namely Primary cells and Secondary cells. In case of
primary cells the electrochemical reaction that occurs during the discharge is not reversible. If we try
to recharge a primary battery, the compounds that have been formed during discharge will not
recombine into the original compounds that were present before discharge and therefore it’s not
rechargeable. This is the principle reason that primary cells are meant for only one time use.
Secondary cells are special in the sense that their chemical reaction has been designed in such a way
that it is completely reversible. The original chemical compounds that are changed during discharge
can actually be reconstituted into its original form by the application of external potential between the
electrodes that inject energy into the cell. Secondary cells can be discharged and recharged infinite
times but its life is limited by degradation of the cells.
Some popular types of batteries are Dry cell, Alkaline cell, lithium-ion (Li-ion), lead-acid (PbA),
Nickel-Cadmium (NiCd), Nickel-Metal Hydride (NiMH), Nickel Zinc, Zinc air.as shown in Table 1
with their electrochemistry.

Table 1: Different types of batteries and their electrochemistry

Nominal Negative Positive
S.No Electrochemistry Electrolyte
voltage electrode electrode
1 Lead acid 2.1V Pb PbO2 H2SO4
2 Dry cell 1.6V Zn MnO2 ZnCl2
3 Alkaline 1.5V Zn MnO2 KoH
4 Nickel cadmium 1.35V Cd NiooH KoH
5 Nickel Zinc 1.73V Zn NiooH KoH
6 Zinc air 1.65V Zn O2 KoH
7 Nickel metal 1.2V H2 in form of Ni(OH)2 KoH
Hydride metal hydride
8 Lithium ion 3.7V Graphite LFP,LMO,LCO LiPF6

Among the above different types of batteries, NiMH and Li-ion batteries are highly preferred. NiMH
has higher specific energy, energy density than cadmium electrode. They have higher capacity and
longer life than NiCd batteries. Since it is free of cadmium they are considered as an environment
friendly battery. The magic of NiMH cells is the negative electrode which is a rare earth hydrogen
absorbing metal alloy. There is no electro chemical reaction taking place in the negative electrode that
changes its structure when hydrogen goes in and comes out of the electrode.
The Li-ion cells also allow intercalation of lithium ions into crystalline lattice of graphite without
changing its crystalline structure. Li-ion batteries have higher open circuit voltage which reduces the
number of cells in a battery pack. Higher energy density makes the battery pack compact and high
specific energy lightens the overall weight of the vehicle. They can be operated in a wide temperature
range without decreasing its lifetime. Li-ion batteries can be charged and discharged at higher C-rate at
normal operating conditions, so that a small battery pack can meet peak power requirements and
absorb most regenerative energy.

Table 2: Basic requirements for NiMH and Li-ion batteries for EV applications

S.NO REQUREMENT NiMH Li-ion

1 Specific energy 40-80Wh/Kg 130-200Wh/Kg
2 Energy density 90-160Wh/L 180-320Wh/L
3 Specific power 900-1600W/Kg 1200-4000W/Kg
4 Charge/discharge efficiency 80-95% 85-96%
5 Self-discharge rate 8-15% month <5% month
6 Cycle durability 800-1200 cycles 1500-2000 cycles
7 Nominal cell voltage ≅1.2V ≅3.7V

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ICRDREIOT2020 IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 994 (2020) 012013 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/994/1/012013

3. Battery modelling
Battery system consists of battery cells. Depending on the requirement of output voltage, power and
energy capacity for an EV, a battery pack contains many cells connected in series or parallel or both.
Battery operation and its input-output parameters can be studied by modelling the battery. Proper
model of the battery is required for a good BMS design; control and optimization. There are several
methods available to model a battery, and the most widely used are electric model, thermal model and
electro-thermal model.

3.1. Battery electric model

Electro-chemical model, reduced order electric model, equivalent circuit model, Data driven model are
the types of battery electric model. Among these different models, the equivalent circuit model is
widely adopted has the model structure is simple with less number of model parameters. In the
equivalent circuit model battery electric behaviours can be studied by a combination of circuit
components such as resistors, capacitors, voltage sources as given below.

Figure 1. Battery model Equivalent circuit

The resistors and capacitors are related to charge transfer or diffusion processes. Model order is
denoted by the number of RC networks as given by Kailong LIU et al[1]. First and second order
models are popular and higher orders are of less importance. This model has better dynamic
performance especially for State-Of-Charge (SOC) and power estimations. The other models are not
discussed here.

From the above figure according to KVL

Vt =VOC +Vohm + Vdyn (1)
(2)
Q=f(SOC)
Vohm =It* Rohm= It* Rohm(SOC,T) (3)
Vdyn= IRdyn* Rdyn(SOC,T) (4)
(5)
Terminal current It = IRdyn+Icdyn (6)

Where Vt is terminal voltage in volts, Vohm is the voltage across Rohm, Vdyn is dynamic voltage across
the resistor. VOC is the open circuit voltage .Vo is no load voltage, Rdyn is dynamic resistance. T is the
battery temperature. F is faraday constant, ne is the number of electron transferred in cell reaction and
Rg is universal gas constant.[5]

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ICRDREIOT2020 IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 994 (2020) 012013 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/994/1/012013

Dynamic voltage Vdyn can be described by the differential equation

(7)
Overall differential equation of electrical circuit
(8)

3.2. SOC calculations

SOC of a battery gives the percentage of available amount of energy over its maximum achievable
amount.

For EV System Performance, Analysis and Simulation as well as design battery SOC calculation,
(9)
SOC(ti)=SOCi (initial SOC)

Where is the columbic efficiency of the battery, is the capacity of battery in ampere-
hours

3.3. Modelling thermal behaviour

Heat generated by the battery is the heat generated by the resistors in the electric circuit model.
Heat generated by the resistors is
Hgen = HRohm+Hdynamic+Hreact (w) (10)
2
Ohmic resistance heat HRohm=|I|*|Vohm=I Rohm(SOC,T) (w) (11)
Dynamic heat given by Hdynamic=|I|*|Vdyn|=|I|*| dt| (12)|

At initial condition Vdyn|t=0=0.The reaction heat is given by Hreact= (13)

Where ΔS is delta entropy of the reaction(J/mol-k), F is faraday constant=96,487 C/mol
Dissipated heat is Hdissipated=(Tcoolant-T)hbat (14)
Battery temperature is given by (15)
where,Tcoolant is the temperature of coolant(K),
hbat is heat transfer co-efficient of battery (W/K)
is initial temperature of battery.Using the above equations a EV system battery electrical model
can be implemented as given below.

Figure 2. Battery model implementation

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ICRDREIOT2020 IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 994 (2020) 012013 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/994/1/012013

3.4. Comparison of SOC, OCV, temperature

SOC is used to determine the battery capacity. There are several methods available to
determine SOC. The measurement of OCV is a voltage based SOC determination [16].OCV
can be measured without load and this method is suitable for estimating initial SOC. OCV is
the terminal voltage of the battery at no load and the battery is kept at rest for one hour. In this
experiment conducted, a 400 V, 100Kw power capacity and 20 Kw energy capacity Amaron
single NiMH battery cell is selected .This experiment is done at 20° centigrade. The OCV
measurement for 100% SOC is done under the charging mode with a charging current of
1C.Experiment is started at the initial battery voltage of 0.12V.For every increase in 1%
charge the voltage is noted. After 100% reach of SOC of battery at 1.2V, the battery was
given a rest of 1 hr. There is no charging and discharging process for this 1 hr. There is no
significant change in OCV. SOC and OCV plot is given below in fig 3.
Similarly a cylindrical LFP battery with the same rating of 400V, 100 Kw power capacity and
20 Kw energy capacity is selected. Using voltage based SOC determination OCV is noted.
The experiment is started at initial battery voltage of 3.15V and at final 100% SOC capacity
battery reached 3.46V.1 hour rest period is given. There is no significant drop in the voltage
of the battery. SOC and OCV plot is given below in fig 3.
Using linear regression the curve fitting is done and the 4th degree polynomial equation is
obtained as given below
4th degree LFP OCV y = 8.709e-10*x4 + 6.305e-07*x3 - 0.0001258*x2 + 0.007891*x + 3.163
4th degree NiMH OCV :y = - 3.698e-08*x4 +1.005e-05*x3 - 0.0009576*x^{2} + 0.04174*x + 0.2489

Figure 3. comparison Plot of SOC and OCV for LFP and NiMH

The coefficient of determination gives the goodness of curve fit with strong effect Size for both LFP
and NiMH. The Root Mean Square error RMSE gives the residual measure of farness of data points
from the regression line.

Table 3:R2 and RMSE for batteries in comparison

S.no LFP NiMH

R2 0.9659 0.9728
RMSE 0.1012 0.3676

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ICRDREIOT2020 IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 994 (2020) 012013 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/994/1/012013

The values of RMSE are very less and had proven that data is around the line of best fit. Variation of
internal resistance at different SOC is also measured, the dynamic resistance as given in the battery
model. As shown in fig 4 for cylindrical LFP battery at initial SOC the internal resistance is 3.13Ω.
For every change in SOC the internal resistance is measured and at 100% capacity of SOC the internal
resistance for LFP is 2.37Ω. With high resistance the battery takes less current to charge and there is a
slow charging. With battery SOC increasing it is seen that the resistance decreases with increasing
charging current so that battery can be charged to required voltage. After 80% SOC is reached the
internal resistance again increases since the battery voltage would have sufficiently reached the
required voltage. In NiMH batteries the dynamic resistance is low and minor increase in resistance is
seen at 100%SOC as shown in figure 4.

Figure 4. comparison Plot of SOC and internal resistance for LFP and NiMH

4. Conclusions
Comparing the graph of fig 3 of SOC and OCV curve LFP has high voltage and is of high preference
over NiMH. Cylindrical LFP is of high choice because they are easy to manufacture The major
drawback of LiFePO4 –LFP batteries is the super flat slope of OCV and SOC graph as seen above ,that
makes SOC estimation and balancing cell among the battery system challenging .Batteries need to
have high energy density, low internal resistance and long cycle and calendar life. Hence well trained
battery model together with suitable estimation methods can be adopted to achieve independent or
joint state estimation of battery SOC or internal temperature along with their dynamic resistance. The
research work in the field of battery charging estimation along with temperature management is
needed as Lithium batteries gets easily heated up which reduces the life of batteries. Hence other
chemical equivalent battery materials are needed to be considered to prolong battery usage to
maximum

References
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in the battery management system of electric vehicles Journal of Power Sources vol 226 pp 272–
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[2] Languang Lu Xuebing Han Jianqiu Li Jianfeng Hua and Minggao Ouyang 2013 A Review on
the key issues for Lithium-ion Battery Management in Electric Vehicles, Journal of Power
Sources vol 226pp 272-288
[3] Luca Buccolini Adrianna Ricci Cristiano Scavongelli, Giuseppe DeMaso-Gentile Simone
Orcioni Massimo Conti Battery Management System (BMS) SImulation Environment for
Electric Vehicles. 978-1-5090-2320-2/16 2016 IEEE.
[4] Daisy Ranawat M P R Prasad A Review on Electric Vehicles with perspective of Battery
Management System (ICEECCOT) 14-15 December 2018 978-1-5386-5130-8/18, IEEE 1539

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IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 994 (2020) 012013 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/994/1/012013

[5] Wei Liu Introduction to Hybrid Vehicle System Modeling and Control ISBN: 9781118407400
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Authors’ background
Note:
1 Mrs.V.Karkuzhali, B.E., M.E, is Assistant Professor in Department of Electrical and Electronics
Engineering, since March 2010. She obtained her B.E (EEE) from Adhiyamaan Engineering College
and M.E (PED) from Sri Venkateswara College of Engineering. She has been in the teaching
profession for the past 8 years and has handled UG programme. She also has two years of industrial
experience. Her areas of interest include Electric vehicles, circuit theory, Digital signal processing She
has published a paper in various Conferences. She has attended many workshops & FDPs sponsored
by AICTE related to her area of interest.
2 Dr.P. RANGARAJAN M.E, Ph.d is Professor in Department of Electrical and Electronics
Engineering, since october 2007.He has 28 years of experience. He is the recognised research
supervisor of anna university. He has handled several funded projects and has patent received in his
name. He has published several papers in national and international journal and conferences.