Battery Pack Modeling for the Analysis of
Battery Management System of a
Hybrid Electric Vehicle
Chitradeep Sen1, Student Member, IEEE and Narayan C. Kar2, Senior Member, IEEE
Abstract—Battery forms a critical part of the hybrid electric
vehicle (HEV) drivetrain. An important constraint to the effec-
tive performance and reliability of the battery is its unpredictable
internal resistance variation along the driving cycle. Tempera-
ture has a considerable effect on this internal resistance and thus
the battery management system monitors cell and battery pack
temperature in accordance with the state-of-charge to prevent
thermal runaway. Li-ion batteries which offer possible solutions
to the HEVs energy and power density demands thus need to
have a good thermal management system in order to enhance
their performance. This paper aims to develop a battery pack
model that would analyze the variation of internal resistance as a
function of temperature. The study of the losses would help in
designing a cost effective efficient battery management system.
Index Terms—Hybrid electric vehicle, state-of-charge, battery
management system, thermal management.
I. INTRODUCTION
H YBRID ELECTRIC VEHICLE (HEV) is an optimal combina-
tion of two power sources, a conventional internal com-
bustion engine (ICE) and a rechargeable energy storage sys-
tem (battery). Increasing emission standards across the globe
have popularized this alternative form of transportation. Un-
like conventional vehicles, vehicular power demand is shared
between the two power sources to reduce the fossil fuel con-
sumption in HEVs [1]. Moreover, regenerative braking used to
charge the onboard battery system also reduces the loss of
brake power in the form of heat. These developments lead to a
cheap and low emitting means of transportation. The main
challenges in this path of development are battery and battery
management system (BMS).
The efficiency of battery and battery management system
accounts for the success of the vehicle. The increase in charge
retention, utilization and life of the battery would boost the
reliability of the HEV [2]. The commercialization of different
new chemistries (Ni-MH, Lithium), introduction of battery
monitoring systems and constructional changes have not only
increased the efficiency, performance and reliability but also
broadened the scope of research in the field of battery technol-
ogy. Due to the high energy density, Li-ion batteries have
gained much attention over Ni-MH as a feasible solution to
Acknowledgement: This work was supported in part by the NSERC, Can-
ada.
Chitradeep Sen1 & Narayan C. Kar2 are with the Department of Electrical
& Computer Engineering, University of Windsor, 401, Sunset Avenue, Ontar-
io, N9B 3P4,Canada (e-mail: 1senc@uwindsor.ca, 2nkar@uwindsor.ca).
978-1-4244-2601-0/09/$25.00 ©2009 IEEE
the HEV power demand.
However, unlike Ni-MH, Li-ion is susceptible to abuse.
The anisotropic thermal property of Li-ion cells is of great
concern. The compromise between the axial and radial heat
transfer is dependent on the cell, which is designed for the
specific purpose [3]. Moreover, overcharge or over-discharge
increases the internal temperature of the cell. The larger the
number of cells in series, greater is the probability of over-
charge and over-discharge. The main electronic controls for
the Li-ion battery modules used in HEV are temperature, vol-
tage, and current sensors, which ensure very precise and effi-
cient cell balancing and monitoring. The pack is also com-
prised of thermal, state-of-charge (SOC) and module balanc-
ing circuits. These electronic controls feed information to the
battery management system which protects the cells and in
turn protects the pack according to the set algorithm [4]-[5].
These controls increase the cost and complexity of BMS.
This paper discusses the importance of battery management
system and proposes an intuitive electric circuit model of the
HEV battery pack. The objective of this paper is to define the
characteristics of the battery management system with the help
of the proposed electric model. This would lead to the devel-
opment of a more precise and economic battery management
system.
II. BACKGROUND
A. Battery in HEV
The vehicular power demand varies according to the driv-
ers need. In HEV, this demand is optimally distributed among
the ICE, the generator and the battery as shown in Fig. 1. The
intention of the demand distribution is to operate the vehicle in
electric (battery) mode as much as possible and/or to operate
the ICE in its most efficient operating range in order to reduce
fuel consumption and emissions.
Li-ion has the highest energy density among the entire re-
chargeable cell chemistries, making it a forerunner in the au-
tomotive industry. An important constraint to its popularity is
the susceptibility to thermal runaway, a phenomenon where
the cell reactions lose control, leading to a rapid increase in
temperature and heat causing the cell to self-destruct. It is in-
fused by high temperature, generated mainly due to electrical,
mechanical and thermal abuse. Thus the charging and dis-
charging of Li-ion battery needs to be precise in order to main-
tain an optimum internal temperature to attain maximum per-
formance. The cell and the pack should also be well protected
and monitored in order to prevent damage.
207
 _
(1)

Transmission
Engine Generator Battery
Motor
Figure 1. Energy flow diagram in a HEV.
I_0.03C
Battery Vb Vcv I_1C Generator
Figure 2. Charging of a Li-ion battery.
The voltage across the battery is normally the accumulation
of the electrolytic potential and electrode potential. There is a
reduction in the generated theoretical voltage due to losses
across the various internal resistances. The charging profile is
represented in Fig. 2. A constant current constant voltage me-
thod is used, where initially the battery is charged by a 1C
current till the voltage reaches a state where the current drops
to 0.03C. At this instant, a constant voltage is applied until the
battery has reached the desirable state-of-charge.
B. HEV Battery Pack
The HEV battery pack consist of cells that are arranged in
small groups termed as modules. These modules are then
grouped together to form the battery pack. Fig. 3 represents a
schematic diagram of a generalized battery pack composed of
m modules, having n cells in each module. Battery manage-
ment system controls these cells to attain maximum efficiency.
The capacity ( ) of the battery pack remain constant as
the cells are connected in series. The voltage adds up accord-
ing to the number of cells. The number of cells is normally
determined by :
where _ is the average battery current and is
the battery capacity.
The open-circuit voltage across the terminals of the battery
pack shown in Fig. 3 would be the summation of all the cell
voltages and can be expressed as
(2)
where is the open-circuit voltage across each cell and is
the number of cells in each module in the battery pack. For
example, Toyota Prius Generation III uses prismatic Ni-MH
modules from Panasonic, each of which consists of six 1.2 V
cells connected in series. Each of these modules has a nominal
voltage of 7.2 V and capacity of 6.5 AHr. The Prius III battery
pack consists of 28 such modules connected in series resulting
in a nominal voltage of 201.6 V.
In reality, there are significant internal losses during the
real-time operation of HEV battery pack. Along with the
charge-discharge cycle, the pack construction (i.e. the ar-
rangement of cells along with the insulation and ventilation)
and manufacturing dissimilarities have considerable impact on
the cell internal parameters such as self-discharge resistance,
polarization resistance and charging-discharging resistance.
The overall internal resistance of the battery pack is more
than the accumulation of individual cell resistances. The study
of this variation is necessary for accurate terminal voltage jus-
tification and state-of-charge prediction. The terminal voltage
of the battery pack is dependent on the interaction between the
cell and battery pack construction. This interdependent phe-
nomenon is explained with the help of the proposed model.
C. Battery Management System
Battery management system is the control and optimiza-
tion of the function of cells and battery pack, protecting it
from electrical and thermal abuse when subjected to an unpre-
dictable varying demand and driving conditions. Its control
strategy is based on the information fed to it by the sensors as
shown in Fig. 4 in order to meet the power demand from the
energy management controller [6]-[9].

E R11 E R21 E Rm1

E R12 E R22 E Rm2

Vb

E R 1n E R 2n E Rmn

Figure 3. The generalized schematic diagram of HEV battery pack.

208
 [14]. Cell equalization is done to prevent this chronically in-
creasing cell overcharge, undercharge and over discharge
CVS CTS CCS
probability [3], [10]. The electric circuit presented in this pa-
per is used to represent this thermal dependency of the battery
+
+ R pack. The temperature gradient is studied with the help of the
Cell 1
change in overall internal resistance. The life of battery can
-
Battery Management Controller

PTS also be increased with this analysis, adding value to the overall
life cycle and reliability of the vehicle.

PCS CVS CTS CCS IV. PROPOSED MODEL

A. Model Objective
+
R Li-ion battery, used in HEVs/EVs has an optimum range of
Vcell
Vbat

Cell 2
-20 to 45ºC. Thermal variation renders anomaly in state-of-
-
charge estimation as the internal resistance is temperature de-
PVS
pendent. There is a discrepancy between the voltage obtained
across the battery pack and the accumulation of individual cell
voltages. The proposed model is designed to analyze the over-
CVS CTS CCS
all internal resistance variation and determine a precise ter-
PTS
minal voltage considering the effect of temperature and age-
+ R
ing, since both have an accumulative effect on the battery per-
-
Cell n formance.
-
The ageing incorporated in the model is based on the daily
CVS- Cell Voltage Sensor usage of battery, representing the permanent degradation of its
CTS- Cell Temperature Sensor capacity with every charge-discharge cycle. The assumptions
CCS- Cell Current Sensor
PVS- Pack Voltage Sensor for the proposed model are
PTS- Pack Temperature Sensor a) The self-discharge resistance is neglected at loaded
PCS- Pack Current Sensor conditions.
Figure 4. Block Diagram of the Controller module. b) The internal resistance is variable across the charge-
The important features of the BMS are as follow: discharge cycle.
a) SOC maintenance in accordance with the energy c) Ageing due to storage is neglected.
management system algorithm. d) No Peukert effect.
b) Voltage, current and temperature monitoring of indi- e) The charging and the discharging characteristics vary
vidual cells. with time and temperature.
c) Over-charge and over-discharge protection.
d) State-of-Health (SOH) monitoring.
e) Voltage, current and temperature monitoring of the
battery pack.
f) Internal fault analysis.
Fig. 4.is the block diagram of the basic operation of a BMS
consisting of an array of n cells. The output of cell voltage,
temperature and current sensor namely the CVS, CTS and
CCS are fed to battery management controller for its optimum
performance and protection. The resistance R across each cell
is used for resistive cell balancing [3], [10].
Figure 5. The electric circuit model of a cell.
III. BATTERY PACK MODELING
There is a high probability of manufacturing variation be-
tween cells within the battery pack. This variation leads to a
difference in charge and discharge characteristics of each cell.
Temperature difference, which is a major consequence of this
charge-discharge cycle variation, cumulates with time and is
influenced by ageing, number of continuous charge-discharge
cycles, load demand, type of discharge and the external tem-
perature. This also has a great impact on the state-of-health of
the battery. The thermal modeling of the battery pack is thus
necessary to illustrate its real time operation. The monitoring
of individual cell is essential in order to prevent its abuse [11]- Figure 6. The electric circuit model of battery pack.

209
B. Model Formulation
The proposed model takes into account individual cell op-
eration along with their integration, representing the battery
pack. The individual cell representation is shown in Fig. 5. Vib
is the internal generated voltage of the cell. Rsd is used to
represent the self-discharge resistance while Ib is the current
flowing in the cell. Rc, Rco and Rd, Rdo represent the charging,
over-charging, discharging and over-discharging resistance
respectively. The capacitor Ccap and resistance Rpack shown in
Fig. 6. represent the capacity and the pack internal resistance
respectively. Rt1 and Rt2 denote resistances with positive and
negative temperature coefficient. Rf and Cf is resistance and
capacitance that acts as a filter to the incoming disturbances
[15].
The model has been designed for Li-ion battery used in
HEVs and EVs. It can also be made applicable for Ni-MH
batteries with minor modifications. The basic cell model de-
rived is shown in Fig. 7. It is a capacitive representation of the
battery and is connected across a DC machine whose applied
torque determines the direction of the current. Rc, Rco and Rd,
Rdo representing the charging, overcharging and discharging,
over-discharging resistances respectively has been considered
for the analysis of charge-discharge characteristics. Rseries is the
overall battery pack resistance.
The model has been simulated in Matlab/Simulink envi-
ronment. It has been designed for the formulation of control
algorithm than can be implemented in the battery management
system controller on the basis of the derived results. The initial
voltage across the capacitor is set to be the theoretical voltage
of the battery at full charge, no-load condition. The capacitor
charges or discharges according to the direction of battery
current i.e. charging or discharging mode.
This proposed model can be used to accurately validate bat-
teries of different chemistries like lithium-ion and lead-acid of
resistance. The increasing rate of cell reaction is limited to an
internal temperature of 45ºC.
V. SIMULATION RESULTS
The effect of charge-discharge cycle, temperature variation
and ageing has been neglected for the simulation shown in
Fig. 8. It represents the charge-discharge characteristics of the
battery for a constant internal resistance. The simulation had
been done at a constant temperature of 25ºC, considering an
initial state-of-charge of 100%. The uniform drop signify simi-
lar charging-discharging pattern, thus representing an ideal
operation.
A. Analysis of the internal resistance variation considering
the effect of temperature
The simulation is limited to a region of optimum operation
of 201.6 V and 198 V for a DC machine. Fig. 9 shows the
charge-discharge pattern of battery considering the effect of
temperature during the initial transients. The initial loss across
the resistance is in accordance with the temperature and
charge-discharge cycle.
The variation of the overall internal resistance with time is
shown in Fig. 10. This overall resistance is a result of the
combined effect of the individual cell resistance (Rc, Rco & Rd,
Rdo) and the battery pack resistance (Rpack). It has been ob-
served that the resistance decreases due to the proliferation of
the cell reaction with the increasing temperature. The variation
of temperature along the charge-discharge cycle is shown in
Fig. 11. It is the overall battery pack temperature as
205
200
Vterminal [V]

different ratings by modifying the time constant and the value 195
of the capacitor. It can similarly be used to illustrate the opera-
tion of ultra-capacitors.
190
The voltage of the battery has been maintained in between
203V and 198V. The limit has been restricted in order to pre-
vent thermal runaway. The required torque of the vehicle dur- 185
ing the motor mode is fixed at 100 N. m, rendering a constant 0 600 1200 1800 2400 3000 3600
load discharge profile. Resistance with negative temperature Time [sec]
coefficient simulates the internal cell resistance variation in Figure 8. The charge-discharge cycle for constant resistance.
accordance with the temperature change while battery pack
temperature is anticipated by a positive temperature coefficient 202

201

200
Vterminal [V]

199

198

197
0 300 600 900 1200
Time [sec]
Figure 7. The capacitive representation of the proposed model. Figure 9. The charge-discharge cycle with variable resistance.

210
 0.007972 0.804

0.802
0.007971
Overall Resitanc [Ω]

0.8

Vloss [V]
0.00797 0.798

0.796
0.007969
0.794

0.007968 0.792
0 300 600 900 1200 24.8 25 25.2 25.4 25.6 25.8 26 26.2
Time [sec] Temperature [ºC]
Figure 10. The change in resistance as a function of time. Figure 13. The voltage loss across the temperature gradient.

27 140
26.8
120
26.6
Temperature [ºC]

26.4 100

Temperature [ºC]
26.2
80
26
25.8 60
25.6
25.4 40
25.2 20
25
24.8 0

0 300 600 900 1200 0 500 1000

1500 2000 2500 3000 3500
Time [sec] Time [sec]
Figure 11. Temperature gradient profile during the optimum operation. Figure 14. Temperature gradient profile for the complete simulation.
0.007972 0.00406

0.00404
Overall Resitance [Ω]

Cell Resistance [Ω]

0.007971 0.00402

0.004
0.00797
0.00398

0.00396
0.007969
0.00394

0.007968 0.00392
25 25.5 26 26.5 27 25 46 67 88 109 130
Temperature [ºC] Temperature [ºC]
Figure 12. Temperature dependency of the overall resistance. Figure 15. Cell resistance variation with temperature.

incorporated by the combination of negative temperature and

positive temperature coefficient thermostats represented by
CTS and PTS in Fig. 4. The control algorithm takes into ac-
count the cumulative effect of the increase in temperature and
rate of cell reactions. The result shows an increase in the rate
of temperature along with the time of operation.
The dependency of the overall resistance on the operating
range of temperature is shown in Fig. 12. It signifies that the
effect of increase in cell reaction supersedes the effect of bat-
tery pack resistance, resulting in an overall decrease of the
resistance. Due to this decreasing resistance, the voltage drop,
as shown in Fig. 13, is reducing with time and temperature
signifying an increase in battery performance. The initial sud-
den increase in voltage drop is a result of the cell reaction init-
iation. It should be noted that the simulations had been in-
itiated at room temperature i.e.25 ºC.
211
B. Analysis of the terminal voltage as a function of tempera-
ture, ageing and charge-discharge cycle
The temperature gradient increases with the charge-
discharge cycle as shown in Fig. 14. As the safe operating
range of Li-ion batteries are limited to 45ºC, the rate of cell
reactions decreases with further increase in temperature. With
no effective cooling, the temperature increases linearly with
time after attaining 45ºC as shown in Fig. 14. The battery
pack, which has been modeled with a positive temperature
coefficient of resistance, now limits its performance and safe-
ty. Figure 15 illustrates the variation of the cell internal resis-
tance while Fig. 16 shows the variation in the battery pack
resistance for the same period of time. It can be inferred from
these two graphs that the positive affect of cell reactions on
the overall performance is limited to 45ºC.
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200.5
200
199.5
199
198.5
0 600 1200 1800
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Figure 17. The internal voltage variation along the charrge-discharge cycles.
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Fig. 17. There has
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BIOGRAPHIE ES
Chitradeep Sen (S S’09) received his Bachelor of
Technology in Electriical & Electronics Engineering in
2007 from Bengal College
C of Engineering & Tech-
nology, India. He iss currently working towards his
M.A.Sc. degree in Electrical
E Engineering from Uni-
versity of Windsor, Ontario,
O Canada. The focus of his
research is to devellop and test battery model and
management system in hybrid vehicular technology.
He is currently developing new models and d strategies that can increase the
reliability and stability of the batteries.
Narayan C. Kar (S’95-M’00-SM’07) received the
B.Sc. degree in Elecctrical Engineering from Bangla-
desh University off Engineering and Technology,
Dhaka, Bangladesh h, in 1992 and the M.Sc. and
Ph.D. degrees in eleectrical engineering from Kitami
Institute of Technoology, Hokkaido, Japan, in 1997
and 2000, respectiveely.
He is an associaate professor in the Electrical and
Computer Engineering Department at the University
of Windsor, Canad da where he holds the Canada
Research Chair position in hybrid drivetrain n systems. His research presently
focuses on the analysis, design and control off permanent magnet synchronous,
induction and switched reluctance machiness for hybrid electric vehicle and
wind power applications, testing and perforrmance analysis of batteries and
development of optimization techniques for hybrid energy management sys-
tem. He is a Senior Member of the IEEE.

212