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Basic Battery Terminology
Basic Battery Terminology
Basic Battery Terminology
There are certain basic battery terminology that tends to be misunderstood in practice.
These terms commonly refers to the condition of the battery as well as capacity of the
battery:
Internal Resistance
This is the resistance within the battery, generally different for charging and
discharging, also dependent on the battery state of charge. As internal resistance
increases, the battery efficiency decreases and thermal stability is reduced as more of
the charging energy is converted into heat.
Consider the battery circuit above, where E is the open circuit voltage, I is the load
current flowing in amps, V is the terminal voltage across a load resistance RL, r is the
battery internal resistance
Where:
I = Discharge current in Amps
C = Numerical value of rated capacity of the battery in ampere – hours (AH)
n = Time in hours for which rated capacity of battery is declared
M = Multiple or fraction of C
Consider a battery rated at 200AH with a discharge current of 10Amps, the C rate is
calculated as:
M = I/Cn = 10/200 = 1/20 = 0.05C or C/20 rate
E’’ Rate
An E-rate describes the discharge power. A 1E rate is the discharge power to discharge
the entire battery in 1 hour. Just like the C rate, the E rate can be expressed as:
P=M∗En
Where:
I = Discharge current in Amps
E = Numerical value of rated power of the battery in watt – hours (Wh)
n = Time in hours at which the battery was rated
M = Multiple or fraction of C
Consider a battery with rated at 1200mWh with rated power of 600mW, the E rate is
calculated as :
M = P/En = 600mW/1200mW = 0.5E or E/2 rate