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Battery Management Systems (BMS)

for Increasing Battery Life Time

A. Jossen, V. Spath, H. Doring, J. Garche

Center for Solar Energy and Hydrogen Research (ZSW Ulm), Helmholtzstr. 8,89081 Ulm, Germany
Fax. ++49 731 9530 666, phone 4 9 731 9530 0, email: jgarche@huba.zsw.uni-ulrn.de,
http://www.zsw.uni-u1m.de

all external parameters. Some of the parameters are

1 INTRODUCTION
The life time of the battery depends of many different
parameters. One parameter set are the internal
battery parameter and a second set are the external
battery parameter.
The internal battery parameter are influenced by the
battery manufacturers. To these parameters belong
e.g.
- material parameter (collector alloy, electrolyte,
additives, separator etc.)
- design parameter (grid, expanded, tubular, plate
connection etc.)
- dimension parameter (plate thickness, relation
positive to negative active mass, relation active
mas,sto electrolyte, etc.)
- batt'ery technology (flooded, valve regulated,
sealed, etc)
- production technology
fixed
by the application. In case of U P S systems the
discharge current is given by the load and controlling
by the BMS is limited. On the other hand it is possible
to control the charge process in a wide range.
An other tasks of a BMS within U P S systems is the
prediction of bridging time and battery lifetime.
2 INFLUENCE OF EXTERNAL
BATTERY PARAMETER ON
LIFE TIME
In this chapter only the influence of some selected
external parameter on the life time of lead-acid
batteries will be shown.
Depth of Discharge

The external battery parameter, however, are

influenced only by the battery users. To these
parameters belong e.g.
- charge parameter (charge mode, charge current,
end of charge voltage, charge factor, AC influence
of the charge current etc.)
- discharge parameter (discharge current, pulse
current, DOD etc.)
- temperature
- kincl and frequency of maintenance
The external parameter can take an enormous
influence on the life time. By use of a battery
management system (BMS) it is possible to control 0 t000 2000 3003 4Mo 5000
Zyklenzahl
the external parameters with the target to extend
battery lifetime. Of course it is not possible to control

0 1999 IEEE
0-780:3-5624-1/99/$10.00
Fig. Error! Unknown switch argument.: DOD vs. The following Figure shows the temperature influence
Cycle number for industrial LAB and on the corrosion of a pasted positive grid.
consumer LAB
The relation between the DOD and the cycle number
n
(cn) is as follows
U
6 0,07
cn = const/ DOD. m 0,06
0,05
3 0,04
Temperature,discharge current 2 0,03
.E 0,02
U)
0,Ol
ij 0 1 I I 1
2
20 40 60 80
400 I

Ternperatur ["C]
300 I

Fig. Error! Unknown switch argument.: Corrosion

200%
L
mass loss of the grid (PbSb4,83) of a pasted positive
m
plate at cycling in depends of the temperature and
3E time ( day E Tage)
n
-1
s loos

fdE Rest period

w

50%

1.4 1
30 %

IO 20 30 40 . 50
MittfereTemperatur ['C]

Fig. Error! Unknown switch argument.:,Life time vs.

temperature f o r different discharge
currents I:&; 2:1=315; 3: I=lOl5
(100 % life time after DIN: 30 "C, I = I 5 )
standing battery
\
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35
time[months)

Fig. Error! Unknown switch argument.: Capacity vs.

life time of a LAB f o r different load modes
reference battery: float charge
(D cycling battery: PV related cycling
standing battery: battery (30 % S O C ) in rest
period
50
" I

-30 20 70
Temperature ["C]
3 BATTERY MANAGEMENT
SYSTEM (BMS)
Fig. Error! Unknown switch argument.: Influence of
T o n the cycle number of a LAB 96 V ALCO 3.7 General
2200 ( DOD 80 %) To increase the life time of the battery the external
battery parameter are to manage. This is not only
important for the lead-acid battery but also for the
advanced battery systems like lithium batteries and
The reason for life time decrease at higher high temperature batteries. Therefore, a battery
temperature is mostly an increase of the corrosion. management system (BMS) is required taking the
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special demands of the battery technology into time. Therefore module- or cell-voltage
account. measurements are very important and part of UPS
As inpiit signals voltages, currents and temperatures management systems. Two different architectures are
are measured. The function of a battery management known for module measurements:
system can be split into the following tasks: In case of a centralised system the measurement
0 Data acquisition unit is located within the BMS. The advantage of
0 Baltery state determination this technology is the lower material costs. The
main disadvantage is the wiring between the BMS
0 Electrical management
central unit and the battery cells (modules).
Tht:rmal management (not always necessary)
Safety management In case of a decentralised system the
Communication measurement unit is decentralised in cell/module
oriented units. This units communicate with the
Error! Unknown switch argument. shows a central BMS via a digital communication bus. The
simplified schematic drawing of an BMS. main advantage is the reduced wiring and the
possibility to expand the system. Additionally the
decentralised units can measure the temperatures
of the cells/modules. This additional information
-
J analogue gives the possibility for better, but also more
3 dieital
Y
complex, battery state calculation. Decentralised
systems get more economic in case of larger
batteries.

chargm
Load

Fig. Error! Unknown switch argument.: Schematic

si’ructure of a battery management system
(BMS)

Figure Error? Unknown switch argument.:

In case of small batteries some of the above Centralised data acquisition
mention1:d functions are available as single or multiple
chip solutions f]. In example Li-Ion battery packs for
cellular phones and laptop computers contain as an
minimum a safety management system. In case of
larger battery systems, the battery management system
is more complex and BMS systems must individually
developed for the battery technology and the
application r31.

Decentralised
3.2 Data acquisition measurement
units
All algolithm of the BMS use measured and calculated
data as input information. Therefore the accuracy, the
sampling rate and the characterisation of front end
filtering are very important and depend on the type of
Figure Error! Unknown switch argument.:
application. For example the sampling rates of EV
Decentralised data acquisition
applicatiions are faster than 1 sample per second
whereas in case of photovoltaic or UPS applications
sampling,rates below 0.2 samples per second are used.
A critical point within UPS applications are single
cell/ module failures, leading in reduced operation
 i '
3.3 Battery state calculation
The battery state is used inside the battery
management as an input parameter for the electrical
management and additionally it is an important
parameter for the user. So the battery state can be used
to estimate the bridging time or the expected lifetime
of the battery.
The state of the battery can be simplified described by
the following two parameters:
0 State of charge (SOC)
0 State of health (SOH)
Both parameters are not independent and influence the
battery performance (i.e. available capacity). The
relationship is shown in figure 9.
Figure Error! Unknown switch argument.: Relation
between state of charge and state of
health
For S O C determination in most cases Ah counting,
including charge loss estimation are used t].
For SOH
determination a couple of more or less good working
methods are known and used. It depends strongly on
the battery technology and the kmd of application
which method is useable.
Error! Unknown switch argument. shows a method
using an optimum filter algorithm for S O C and SOH
determination. Other methods like fuzzy clustering
and neural networks were also developed and tested
['I].
3-1
I
temperature
I I
I
I inner parameterare nd avaihble
I
~dditiru~innerparameters
Inner parameter am avaihble
Fig. Error! Unknown switch argument.: Adaptive
method f o r battery state determination
As optimum filter a Kalman Filter is used. The basic
of such a filter is a battery model that is shown in
figure 11. The Kalman Filter takes the statistical
knowledge of the parameter and the measurement into
account. The deterministic knowledge is described by
differential equations which are included in a battery
model. This model is corrected by statistical
knowledge. The main advantage of this method in
comparison to Ah-counting is that the state of charge
calculation is not influenced during long term
operation (problem of drift).
U
Figure Error! Unknown switch argument.: Battery
Model f o r Kalman Filter
3.4 Electrical Management
Within the electrical management the input parameters
current, voltages, temperatures, SOC and SOH are
used to control the charge and discharge process. The
following tasks must be fulfilled:
Control of the charge process, including
equalization charge and float charge
Control of the discharge
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The charge control process and the discharge
limitation depend strongly on the used battery
technology and the battery type. For UPS systems the
recharging of the battery must be adapted to the deep
of the previous discharge, the temperature and
optionally to the battery age. Quick recharge in
combination with lowest aging are the main targets.
Additionally the control of the float charge is very
important.
Figure 12 shows the limitation of the discharge
current in case of an electric vehicle. In case of UPS
applica1:ions the discharge can only be controlled by a
priority controlled cut off of the loads.
I I
Fig. Emor! Unknown switch argument.: Function
f o r current limitation vs. SOC as it is used
in electric vehicles
3.5 Safety and supervisor manage-
ment
The safety management has to protect the battery
against critical operation conditions. In case of an
BMS for an electric vehicle, the tasks of the safety
management system are:
0 Prolection against deep discharge
0 Prolection of single cells against overdischarge
0 Prolection against overtemperature (thermal
runaway)
0 Battery turn off in case of a crash
Overcun'ent and overvoltage should also be detected
by the safety management.
3.6 Thermal management
A thermal management is necessary for most high
power applications and for high temperature batteries.
The tasks of the thermal management system are
temperature equalization between the cells, cooling of
the battery and in some cases, i.e. high temperature
batteries, the heating of the battery. Therefore liquid
or air (fan) systems are used. One major problem is
the heat ltransfer from the inside of the battery cells to
the outside, because the thermal resistance of the
electrolyte and the plastic cell housing is quite high.
In case UPS systems the equalization between the cell
temperatures is the most important function of a
thermal management system. In case of a closed unit
containing the rectifier, the inverter and the batteries
high temperature gradients within the battery are
possible. In case of larger U P S systems where the
battery is not located together with power electronics
in a cabinet, thermal management is less important.
3.7 Communication
The communication between the BMS and other
onboard and off-board devices is another important
task of the BMS. Depending on the application
different interface systems for data exchange are used:
0 Analogous signals
0 Pulse wide modulated signals
0 Serial Interface like CAN-Bus or 12Cor others
Newer UPS systems use serial interfaces like CAN
(control area network). This CO communication
interface gets more and more popular for automation
systems and automotive use. A lot of hardware
components are available (i.e. microcontroller)
supporting this interface standard.
4 CONCLUSIONS
This presentation shows that a couple of features must
be fulfilled by a battery management system. If the
functions of a BMS are optimized to the used battery
type and the application where it is used for, it is
possible to extend battery lifetime. In case of UPS
system central points are state of charge
determination and the prediction of battery lifetime.
Especially the life time prediction is a very complex
and up to now not solved problem. At ZSW new
methods for Battery age estimation and lifetime
prediction based on optimum filter technology and
fuzzy methods are under development.
REFERENCES
JStrebe, B. Reichman, B. Mahato, K.R. Bullock,
"Improved gelled-electrolyt lead /acid batteries for
deep-discharge applications", J. Power Sources 31
(1990) 43
Philips Semiconductos: Data Sheet SAA 1.502ATS.
Safety IC for Li-ion, Eindhoven, the Netherlands, 1998
 3-1
I
D. Heinemann at al.: A new design of a battery
management system including a range Forecast, EVS
14,1997

A. Jossen et al.: Battery Control Unit with State of

Charge Indicator, IdhEuropean Photovoltaic Solar
Energy Conference and Exhibition, 1991, Lisabon

' J. Garche at al.: Failure modes and the detection of the

state of health of lead-acid batteries in PV-systems,
LABAT, 1996