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A Method of Electric Vehicle Charging to Improve Battery Life

Conference Paper · September 2015

DOI: 10.1109/UPEC.2015.7339846

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 A Method of Electric Vehicle Charging to
Improve Battery Life
Ahmed A Abdullah Al-karakchi Gillian Lacey
Northumbria University, UK Northumbria University, UK
Technical College of Mosul, FTE, Iraq gillian.lacey@northumbria.ac.uk
ahmed.a.a.al-karakchi@northumbria.ac.uk
Abstract-The lithium-ion battery is the most expensive part
of the electric vehicle (EV). Improving battery performance is
one of the most important factors in promoting the EV market
by prolonging battery life, reducing the cost of ownership and
giving confidence in the product to potential customers. This
paper considers a method of improving battery performance
that extends the life of the battery and increases holding
capacity. This will be realized by finding the best charging
profile for an EV battery by identifying, the time that battery
can accept charging and the charging profile with minimum
effect on battery life.
The analysis presented shows that including rest periods
during battery charging reduces battery degradation in two
ways. Firstly, it reduces the rate of change in battery internal
resistance. Secondly, it slows down the rate of capacity fade.
Moreover, it reduces the average battery temperature through
charging.
Index Terms--Battery charger, battery internal resistance,
capacity fade, electric vehicle, lithium-ion battery.
I. INTRODUCTION
Technology development throughout the last century brought
significant changes to our planet. The most negative impact is
increased pollution and climate change. Conventional
vehicles depend on fossil fuel and therefore have large effect
on the environment and climate change. So, nowadays there
is a lot of interest to replace these vehicles with electric
vehicles (EV) [1]. But, these trends have some barriers
because of the higher cost of EV, which depends mainly on
EV battery and on the range of battery cycle life [2].
Therefore, significant research is conducted to find solutions
to these issues. Hoke et al [3] suggested a compromise among
four styles to reduce battery degradation, which are charging
during low cost, charging with low rate, charging at the end
of the available time and repression of V2G power
exportation. In [4], the time needed for charging battery is
reduced, through using step charging in constant current (CC)
charge. A review by Weijun et al. [5] applied two types of
discharge profile, with the same charging method. They used
rest steps in discharge, which reduced capacity fade. In
addition, Lawson has used rest periods during battery
discharge, which result in increasing battery lifetime [6].
Moreover, introducing rest periods through charging will
increase battery cycle life through reduced plating of alkaline
battery [7], but it didn’t apply on lithium battery.
Ghanim Putrus
Northumbria University, UK
ghanim.putrus@northumbria.ac.uk
The new proposed method specifies the improved charging
profile for EV battery, which completes charging with
reduced battery degradation, whilst reducing heat effect in the
battery which is detrimental for battery health. Experimental
results from tests using different practical charging patterns
are used to show the effect of scheduled charging control. The
results show improvement in predicted battery life through
reducing battery degradation. This method will increase the
time needed to charge the EV, but most EVs have long
periods of time when they are not being used.
In the proposed method, the charger will charge for a pre-set
limited time and stop for limited time (rest period) and repeat
until charging is complete.
The paper is organized into seven sections: the first section
presents the introduction, the second section describes the
solid electrolyte interface, the third section discusses battery
charging reactions, the fourth section shows the standard
charging profile, the fifth section defines the modified
charging profile, the sixth section discusses the results and
last section about summary and conclusions.
II. SOLID ELECTROLYTE INTERFACE
Battery internal resistance is one of the important factors in
determining battery performance. It limits battery current
handling and charge/discharge time. The main factor which
leads to the increase of internal resistance is the formation of
the solid electrolyte interface (SEI). This is a chemical
proccess between electrolayte and anode, which leads to the
deposit of a thin layer, as shown in Fig. 1, it resists the flow
of current during both charge/discharge [8]. The thin layer of
SEI is useful to prevent intercalation of impurity lithium-ion.
But, with battery cycling and temperature effect, this lead to
increase SEI layer and slow down the current flow. Which
reflect on the capability of the battery to hold capacity and
supply it.
III. BATTERY CHARGING (CHEMICAL REACTION)
Battery cell is a chemical reaction, the chemical reaction that
happening through charging have three main stages: charge
transfer, mass transport and intercalation process [9]. As
shown in Fig. 2. Charge transfer appears between electrolyte
and electrode and this transfer quickly, which it passes
through the surface of the electrode. Whilst, mass transport
and called diffusion process, which start with charge transfer
 Electrolyte
6 4

Collector 3.5
Collector 4
3
2
2.5

Current (A)

Voltage (V)
Cathode
Anode Lithium 0 2
Carbon Metal
Oxide 160 180 200 220 240 260 280 300 320
1.5
-2
1
Current(A)
-4
0.5
Voltage(V)
-6 0
Time (m)
SEI
Separator

Fig. 1. Representation of Battery cell. Fig. 3. Standard charging: Current and voltage of battery at CC-CV
profile.

Electrode Electrolyte 6 4

3.5
4
Ion Flow
3
2
2.5
Current (A)

Voltage (V)
Intercalation region Mass transport region
(Long time) (Long time) 0 2
890 920 950 980 1010 1040 1070 1100 1130
1.5
-2
1
Current(A)
-4
0.5
Voltage(V)
Charge transfer region -6 0
(Short time) Time (m)

Fig. 2. Cell chemical reaction times. Fig. 4. Modified charging: Including rest periods through charging
profile.

by moving charge from the electrode surface during
electrolyte. This process takes long time to complete. The
third stage is the intercalation process and at this phase,
lithium ions began to insert through electrode material during
charge. This process takes a long time as well.
IV. STANDARD CHARGING PROFILE
Fig. 3 shows the standard conventional charging for lithium-
ion battery known as constant current constant voltage (CC-
CV) charging [10].
This profile provides constant current until battery terminal
reach the maximum charging voltage based on manufacturer
limits, then starts to drop charging current to prevent over
voltage until charge complete.
V. MODIFIED CHARGING PROFILE
Modified profile is a type of pulse profile, but with changable
pattern, depends on battery manufacture limits. Fig. 4 shows
charging with rest times, charging (ON) for specfic time and
(OFF) for other specific time and repeated periodicaly, during
the charging interval. The advantage of this method is to
complete the battery charging without over stress on battery
cells. This is shown to reduce battery temperature, which is
one of the main factors that affect battery performance. This
is achieved by dissipating heat out of the battery pack during
rest periods, which is known to improve battery health. In
contrast, because of including rest time through charging, this
will increase the time needed for charging.
VI. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The experimental tests have applied under same condition for
both profiles. Lithium iron phosphate (LiFePO4) battery type
is used. The charging limits are 0.8C charge rate and 3.65
voltage. The discharging limits are 0.8C discharge rate and
2.0 voltage. Arbin machine is used as programable charger
and environment chamber to keep ambient temperature at
25oC. From Fig. 5, it can seen that temperature during
 charge intervals in order to develop an optimum charging
37
Standard profile Modified profile
profile which has minimum impact on battery capacity fade.
35
New results will be published in due course.

33
Temperature (C)

REFERENCES
31
[1] C. Samaras and K. Meisterling, "Life cycle assessment of
greenhouse gas emissions from plug-in hybrid vehicles:
29
implications for policy," Environmental science & technology,
Temperature vol. 42, pp. 3170-3176, 2008.
27
[2] A. G. Boulanger, A. C. Chu, S. Maxx, and D. L. Waltz,
25
"Vehicle electrification: Status and issues," Proceedings of the
640 740 840 940 1040 1140 IEEE, vol. 99, pp. 1116-1138, 2011.
Time (m)
[3] A. Hoke, A. Brissette, K. Smith, A. Pratt, and D. Maksimovic,
"Accounting for Lithium-Ion Battery Degradation in Electric
Vehicle Charging Optimization," IEEE JOURNAL OF
Fig. 5. Temperature changes in both profiles. EMERGING AND SELECTED TOPICS IN POWER
ELECTRONICS, vol. 2, pp. 691-700, Sept 2014.
[4] D. Lan-Ron and Y. Jieh-Hwang, "ILP-based algorithm for
99.3
Lithium-ion battery charging profile," in Industrial Electronics
99.2 (ISIE), 2010 IEEE International Symposium on, 2010, pp. 2286-
2291.
99.1
[5] W. Gu, Z. Sun, X. Wei, and H. Dai, "A New Method of
Capacity (%)

99 Accelerated Life Testing Based on the Grey System Theory for

a Model-Based Lithium-Ion Battery Life Evaluation System,"
98.9 Modified Journal of Power Sources, 2014.
profile
98.8 Standard [6] B. Lawson, "A Software Configurable Battery," in EVS26
profile
International Battery, Hybrid and Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle
98.7
Symposium, Los Angeles, California, 2012.
98.6
[7] D. Linden and T. Reddy, Handbook of Batteries, 3rd ed. United
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 70
States of America: The McGraw-Hill Companies, 2002.
No. of cycles
[8] (2015-04-29). Battery Life and How To Improve It. Available:
http://www.mpoweruk.com/life.htm#changes
[9] Electropaedia. Battery Chargers and Charging Methods.
Fig. 6. Battery capacity in both profiles. Available: http://www.mpoweruk.com/chargers.htm
[10] L. I. R. Batteries, "Technical Handbook," Disponible:
http:/cardi. igeofcu. unam. mx/techdocs/PowerSonic_batteries.
charging was changed according to change in charge profile, p df, 2013.
which results in lowering battery temperature.
From capacity point of view, battery charging with modified
profile results in increase battery ability to hold more capacity
by 0.15%, as shown in Fig. 6. Moreover, battery capacity fade
has reduced, from 0.014% to 0.012% per cycle, which is
equivalent to 14% reduction in degradation. As a result,
battery life will extend by 17% (Assuming battery end of life
by 80%).

VII. CONCLUSIONS

Two charging profiles have been analysed to show the effect

of introducing a rest period during the charging process. First
the standard charging is presented, which demonstrate normal
battery capacity loss due to cycling. In contrast, the modified
charging appears to allow a larger capacity, which may be
due to the smaller increase in internal resistance due to a
smaller rise in temperature. In addition, battery capacity fade
has reduced significantly, which extends battery life.
Research is ongoing to find ways of reducing battery capacity
loss. Further tests are being conducted by varying the rest and

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