Design and Simulation of an Inductor based Active Cell Balancing Circuit for Lithium-ion Batteries

Abstract

In this modern era where energy demand is in-creasing at an exponential rate, energy storage devices play a crucial role in meeting the demands when needed. Rechargeable batteries are gaining momentum as the need for storing electrical energy is increasing day by day. Lithium-ion (Li-ion) technology is better than other rechargeable battery technologies due to its performance characteristics. However, under unfavourable charging and discharging conditions and/or differences in in-ternal parameters, Li-ion batteries tend to heat and adversely affect their performance which results in a reduced life cycle. The process of cell Balancing finds an important role in battery packs which takes the issue of cell imbalance into account. An active cell balancing circuit with an inductor as a storage element has been proposed in this study. The balancing of cells is carried out between four lithium-ion cells connected in series. This paper consists of a detailed study of the design and operation of the cell balancing circuit. An algorithm has been developed in stateflow and simulated on MATLAB.