EEE215- Battery Management Systems

Battery Management System

A battery management
system (BMS) is any electronic
system that manages a rechargeable
battery pack, such as by protecting
the battery from operating outside
its safe operating area, monitoring
its state, calculating secondary
data, reporting that data,
controlling its environment
and balancing it.
Battery Management System

• Battery Management Systems are an important component used for managing and optimizing
battery performance, safety, and longevity.

• The BMS is essential as it assures the effective and safe operation of the battery.

• Cloud-based BMS systems track batteries in real-time, allowing for remote access and control
of battery performance. This is especially beneficial in large-scale applications such as
electric vehicle fleets and renewable energy storage systems.

• AI-based BMS may significantly boost the efficiency and lifespan of EV batteries by real-
time optimizing charging, discharging, and balancing processes.

• The addition of BMS to a product raises the overall cost of the product, which is one of the
key restraints of the battery management system (BMS) market.
 Cell

• “The basic electrochemical unit, characterized by an anode [i.e., negative electrode] and
a cathode [i.e., positive electrode], used to receive, store, and deliver electrical energy.”

• IEEE standard 446 defines a battery as “Two or more cells electrically connected for
producing electric energy
Fig.1. Battery cell
Principle components of a Cell:
• Positive electrode
• Negative electrode
• Electrolyte
• Separator
• Current collectors
• The electrolyte is an ionic conductor that provides the medium for internal ionic charge transfer
between the electrodes.
• The electrolyte must be an electronic insulator (it cannot conduct electrons).
• If it were an electronic conductor, a complete circuit would form internal to the cell, which
would cause the cell to self-discharge or short-circuit.

• Separator physically isolates the positive and negative electrodes.

• It is an ionic conductor but an electronic insulator.
• Its function is to prevent internal short circuiting between the two electrodes
• Current collectors are electronic conductors onto which the electrode materials are adhered
or with which the electrode materials are mixed.
• The current collectors take no part in the chemical reactions of the cell, but instead either
allow simple electronic connection to materials.
• In a lithium-ion cell, the negative-electrode current collector is usually made from copper
foil, and the positive electrode current collector is usually made from aluminum foil.

During discharge, the negative electrode gives up electrons to the external circuit, a process by
which the electrode is oxidized (Oxidation).
During charge, the negative electrode accepts electrons from the external circuit and is reduced
(Reduction).
• Primary cells can be used only once.
• In primary cells, this electrochemical reaction is not reversible.

• In secondary or rechargeable cells, the electrochemical reaction is reversible.

• The original chemical compounds can be reconstituted by the application of an
electrical potential across the electrodes that is higher than the cell’s own electrical
potential.
• Secondary cells can be discharged and recharged many times.
• C rate is a relative measure of cell current.
• It is the constant-current charge or discharge rate that the cell can sustain for 1 hour
• It is simply the nominal ampere hour rating of the cell
 Charge out
Coulombic efficiency =
Charge In

• Coulombic efficiency in a typical lithium-ion cell is around 99% or higher.

Energy out
Energy efficiency =
Energy In

• Energy efficiency in a typical lithium-ion cell is closer to 95%.

• Energy is lost in resistive heating on both charge and discharge.

The primary purposes of a battery-management system are:

•Functional Safety. For Personal safety of users of products. Even smaller formats used in laptops, have been
known to catch fire and cause enormous damage leaves little room for battery management error.

•Life Span and Reliability. Battery pack protection management, electrical and thermal, ensures that all the
cells are all used within declared Safe Operating Area (SOA) requirements.

•Performance and Range. BMS battery pack capacity management, where cell-to-cell balancing is employed
to equalize the SOC of adjacent cells across the pack assembly, allows optimum battery capacity to be realized.

•Diagnostics, Data Collection, and External Communication. Continuous monitoring of all battery cells, can
be used for diagnostics and estimation of SOC of all cells in the assembly. This information can be relayed to
external devices and displays to indicate the resident energy available, estimate expected range or range/lifetime
based on current usage, and provide the state of health of the battery pack.

•Cost Reduction. The introduction of a BMS into a BESS adds costs, and battery packs are expensive. But the
protection and preventive maintenance of a BMS regarding functional safety, lifespan and reliability,
performance and range, diagnostics, etc. guarantees that it will drive down overall costs.
BMS Architecture

Fig.2. BMS Architecture

Source: Renecas
Fig.3. Cutoff FETs

Source: Renecas
Cutoff FETs

• A FET-driver functional block is responsible for the battery pack’s connection and isolation
between the load and charger.

• The FET driver’s behavior is predicated on measurements from battery-cell voltages, current
measurements, and real-time detection circuitry.

• Figure 3 illustrates two different types of FET connections between the load and charger, and
the battery pack.

• Figure 3A requires the fewest number of connections to the battery pack and the battery pack
operating modes are either charge, discharge, or sleep. The current flow direction determine the
device’s state.
Fuel-Gauge/Current Measurements

• The fuel-gauge functional block keeps track of the charge entering and exiting the battery
pack. Charge is the product of current and time. Several different techniques can be used
when designing a fuel gauge.

• A current-sense amplifier and an MCU with an embedded low-resolution analog-to-digital

converter (ADC) is one current-measurement method.

• The most accurate and cost-efficient solution is to measure the voltage across a sense resistor
using a 16-bit or higher ADC with low offset and high common-mode rating.

• A high-resolution ADC offers a large dynamic range at the expense of speed.

• If the battery is connected to an erratic load, such as an electric vehicle, the slow ADC may
miss high-magnitude and high-frequency current spikes delivered to the load.

• A measurement offset of 50 µV or less with 16-bit resolution is adequate when measuring

charge.
Cell Voltage monitoring

• Monitoring the cell voltage of each cell in a battery pack is essential to determine its overall
health.

• All cells have an operating voltage window where charging/discharging should occur to ensure
proper operation and battery life.

• Voltage range is chemistry-dependent. For lithium chemistry, the operating voltage typically
ranges between 2.5 and 4.2 V.

• Operating the battery outside the voltage range significantly reduces the lifetime of the cell and
can render it useless.
• A cell’s performance has a distribution: As each cell cycles between charge and
discharge, each cell’s charge and discharge rates change. This results in a spread
distribution across a battery pack.

• The first cell voltage to reach the voltage limit trips the battery-pack charged limit.
keeping the rest of the cells from fully charging.

• A weaker cell discharges faster. The weaker cell trips the discharge limit first,
leaving the rest of the cells with charge remaining.
Cell balancing

The ultimate goal is to maximize the battery pack’s charge capacity by having all of the cells
simultaneously reach the fully charged limit.

Balanced charging Unbalanced charging

Temperature Monitoring

• Today’s batteries deliver lots of current while maintaining a constant voltage.

• This can lead to a runaway condition that causes the battery to catch fire.

• Temperature measurements aren’t just used for safety, they also can determine if it’s desirable to
charge or discharge a battery.

• Temperature sensors monitor each cell of an energy-storage-system.

State Machines or Algorithms

• Most BMS systems require a microcontroller (MCU) or a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) to
manage information from the sensing circuitry, and then make decisions with the received
information.

• In certain devices, such as the ISL94203, an algorithm that is digitally encoded enables a standalone
solution with one chip.

Other BMS Building Blocks

• Other functional BMS blocks may include battery authentication, real-time clock (RTC), memory, and
daisy chain.

• The battery authentication block prevents the BMS electronics from being connected to a third-party
battery pack.

• The voltage reference/regulator is used to power peripheral circuitry around the BMS system.

• Daisy-chain circuitry is used to simplify the connection between stacked devices.

Cell voltage measurement

Direct method
 LTC6803

• A single LTC6803 can monitor the voltages of

up to 12 cells wired in series in a module.

• An internal analog multiplexer connects cells to

a 12-bit delta-sigma analog-to digital converter,
and a single “read” command can trigger the
measurements of all 12 voltages in rapid
sequence.

• Up to 10 ICs can be daisy-chained together to

monitor up to 120 cells in a battery pack
 Differential Circuit to measure individual Cell voltage

• A differential amplifier gives the difference

between the two voltage values provided to its
inverting and non-inverting pin.

• The first op-amp O1 measures the voltage of the

2nd cell by calculating the difference between
2nd cell terminal and 1st cell terminal that is (8-4).

• Similarly the Op-amp O2 and O3 measures the

3rd and 4th cell voltage respectively.

• Op-amp is not used for the 1st cell since it could

be measured directly.
 Battery Current Measurement

Sensing current with a current shunt.

• A BMS must measure battery-pack current to ensure safety.

• Battery current is a critical input to most SOC and SOH estimation algorithms.

• There are two basic electronics elements that can be used in a circuit to sense current:
Current-shunts and Hall-effect sensors.

• A current-shunt is a low-value (e.g., 0.1mΩ) high-precision resistor placed in series with the
battery pack, usually at the negative terminal.

• The voltage drop Vshunt across the shunt resistance Rshunt is measured using a standard analog-to-
digital converter, and current is computed as I = Vshunt / Rshunt.

• Since the shunt resistance must be small (to avoid large I2R losses), the voltage drop across the
shunt will be small as well.

• So, the voltage is usually amplified before sensing and the calculation for current is adjusted
accordingly.
Disadvantages of Current shunt

• Current shunt must usually be electrically isolated from the main BMS circuitry.

• Amplification circuitry, adds complexity to the design.

• The resistance of the current shunt also changes with temperature, so temperature
should be measured and resistance to be calibrated.

• In addition, the shunt itself introduces some energy losses, and the heat that is
generated must be dissipated via the thermal management system.
Sensing current with a Hall-effect sensor.
• The main battery-pack current-carrying wire passes through the opening in the center
of the sensor.

• No direct electrical connection is made between the sensor and the high-voltage
battery pack.

• This yields the distinct advantage that Hall-effect sensors are automatically isolated
electrically from the high-voltage battery and so no special isolation circuitry is
needed.

• Hall-effect sensors operate based on electromagnetic principles, magnetic hysteresis

is inherent in the device.

• Hall-effect sensors suffer from at least some measurement offset at zero current.
• The internal temperature is an important ageing accelerator which then influences the
battery capacity and power characteristics.

• Some of the ageing effects are lithium plating, Solid Electrolyte Interphase (SEI) growth,
etc.,
Cell Temperature measurement
•Hard Sensors
• Contact
• Thermocouples
• Thermistors
• Resistance Temperature Detectors
• Optical Fibre Sensors

• Contactless
• Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy
• Johnson Noise Thermometry
• Infrared Laser Thermometer

•Soft Sensors
• Mathematical Model Based Estimators
• Bulk Internal Temperature Estimators
• Distributed Internal Temperature Estimators
• Hybrid Model Based Estimators
• Thermocouple, which is a device comprising two dissimilar metals in contact with
each other.

• A very small voltage is produced when the temperature of the thermocouple is

different from a reference temperature at another part of the measurement circuit,
and this voltage depends on magnitude of the temperature difference. The
thermocouple voltage can be amplified and measured and temperature can be
computed from this measurement.

• A design challenge when using thermocouples is that the reference temperature must
be independently known or measured, which probably makes thermocouples not
suited for commercial BMS.
Thermistor (Thermal resistor).

Negative temperature coefficient (NTC) thermistors have

resistance that varies inversely with temperature, and
positive-temperature coefficient (PTC) thermistors have
resistance that varies directly with temperature.

If we can measure thermistor resistance, we can then

infer temperature.

Probably better suited for use in commercial products.

To measure
Battery Fuel Gauge:

• A battery fuel gauge is a feature or device that measures the accumulated energy added to and
removed from a battery, allowing accurate estimates of battery charge level.
• The most popular is to derive the remaining battery capacity from the battery voltage.
• This method has advantages in that it is easy to implement and relatively low in cost.
• One major drawback: It is relatively inaccurate.
• Battery voltage has, at best, an inconsistent relationship to battery capacity—the relationship
varies greatly depending on battery discharge rate and temperature.
Voltage-Based Measurement: This method estimates the charge level based on the battery’s
voltage. As the battery discharges, its voltage decreases, and the fuel gauge uses a voltage-to-state-
of-charge (SoC) relationship to estimate the remaining capacity. However, this method can be
inaccurate due to voltage sag, variations in battery chemistry, and other factors.

Coulomb Counting: Coulomb counting measures the flow of electrical charge in and out of the
battery. It tracks the number of Ah (ampere-hours) flowing into and out of the battery, allowing the
fuel gauge to estimate the remaining capacity. Coulomb counting can be more accurate than
voltage-based methods but may require calibration to compensate for errors over time.

Advanced Algorithms: Advanced fuel gauges use sophisticated algorithms that combine multiple
measurement techniques to provide more accurate estimates of battery capacity. These algorithms
can factor in variables like discharge rate, load profiles, battery aging, and other dynamics to
improve accuracy and reliability. Some modern battery fuel gauges leverage machine learning and
AI techniques to improve accuracy and adapt to different battery chemistries and usage patterns.
 Equivalent circuit of battery

• To estimate the electrical behavior of a system depending on the performance of the

battery, an equivalent circuit for this battery is needed.

• Many different models available for modeling the effects of charge state,
temperature, aging, and many more aspects of a battery.

• The electrical circuit models use equivalent electrical circuits to capture I-V
characteristics of batteries by using the combination of voltage and current sources,
capacitors, and resistors.

• Some of these models can also track the SOC and predict the runtime of the batteries
by using sensed currents and/or voltages.
Battery Model Based on Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy

Impedance spectra were

measured using electrochemical
impedance spectroscopy at
different states of charge, health
and temperatures.
 The Randles circuit

•AW is the Warburg coefficient;

•j is an imaginary unit;
•ω is the angular frequency.

The Warburg impedance models diffusion of lithium ions in the electrodes.

Open circuit voltage (OCV)
Rate of change of state of charge
𝑖(𝑡)
𝑧(𝑡)
ሶ = −𝜂 𝑡
𝑄

• η(t) = 1 at time instants when the sign of current is positive (discharging).

• η(t) ≤ 1 at time instants when the sign of current is negative (charging).

• When charging, most of the charge that passes through the cell participates in the desired
chemical reactions that raise the cell’s state of charge.

• However, a small fraction of the charge passing through the cell instead participates in
unwanted side reactions, which do not contribute towards increasing the cell’s state of
charge.
 Continuous-time model

Discrete-time model

Cell inputs and outputs are sampled at a regular rate with period Δt seconds and frequency 1/Δt hertz
Terminal voltage of the cell during loaded condition

R0 = Equivalent Series Resistance (ESR) of the cell

• v(t) > OCV (z(t)) when i(t) < 0 (i.e., when charging)

• v(t) < OCV (z(t)) when i(t) > 0 (i.e., when discharging).
Note

• The cell’s resistance is often a function of the

cell’s state of charge and is always a function of
the cell’s internal temperature.

• The fidelity of the model’s predictions will be

enhanced if these dependencies are taken into
account in R0.
 Diffusion voltage

Polarization refers to any departure of the cell’s terminal voltage away from open-circuit voltage
due to a passage of current through the cell.

(1)The cell is at rest for the first 5min, and

the voltage is constant.

(2) The cell is then subjected to a discharge

current pulse of constant magnitude from
t = 5min until t = 20min.

(3) The load is removed, and the cell is

allowed to rest for the remainder of the test.

SImulation
Rest Discharge Rest

• The voltage recovery phenomenon is caused by slow diffusion processes of lithium in a lithium-ion cell.
• The slowly changing voltage is referred as a Diffusion voltage.
Thevenin cell model
• If a cell is discharged to 50% SOC and allow the
cell to rest, the equilibrium voltage is lower than
OCV.

• If a cell is charged to 50% SOC and allow the cell

to rest, the equilibrium voltage is higher than
OCV.

• These observations indicate that there is hysteresis

in the cell terminal voltage.
Enhanced self-correcting cell model

𝑀(𝑧, 𝑧)ሶ is a function that gives the maximum

polarization due to hysteresis as a function of SOC
and the rate-of-change of SOC.
𝛾, positive constant which tunes the rate of decay
Effect of charging current on SoC
The charging and discharging systems during the cycle

• The size of charge and discharge current, the choice of charge and discharge cut-
off voltage, have a very important impact on the cycle life of lithium-ion
batteries.

• Blindly increasing the working current of the battery, adding a new charge cut-off
voltage, lowering the discharge cut-off voltage, etc. will degrade the
performance of the lithium-ion battery pack.

• During the charging process of the lithium-ion battery, when the charge cut-off
voltage is exceeded, the excess lithium ions extracted from the positive electrode
will be deposited on the negative electrode, and the deposited active lithium can
easily react with the solvent, releasing heat to increase the battery temperature.
• When the discharge voltage of the lithium-ion battery is lower than the
discharge cut-off voltage, lithium ions will be excessively extracted from the
negative electrode, and it will be more difficult to re-intercalate during the
next charge.

• The discharge capacity and charge-discharge efficiency of lithium-ion

batteries are greatly reduced during the cycle after over-discharge.

• Lithium-ion batteries are extremely likely to fuse under high current

conditions, and equipment components may also be damaged
The factors affecting the cycle life of a lithium-ion battery pack

Lithium-ion battery materials aging

• The charge-discharge cycle of lithium-ion battery packs is a process in which

lithium ions are deintercalated and moved back and forth between the positive
and negative materials through the electrolyte.

• During the cycle of lithium-ion battery packs, in addition to oxidation-reduction

reactions at the positive and negative electrodes, there are also a large number
of side reactions.

• If the side reactions of lithium-ion batteries can be reduced to a low level, the
cycle life of lithium-ion batteries can be increased.
• The nature of the positive and negative current collectors will also affect
the capacity and cycle life of the battery.

• The commonly used current collector materials for the positive and
negative electrodes of lithium-ion battery packs are aluminum and
copper, both of which are corrosive metal materials.

• The corrosion will increase the internal resistance of the battery,

resulting in a loss of capacity and a decrease in discharge efficiency.

• The adhesion and corrosion resistance can be enhanced by

pretreatment methods such as acid-alkali etching and conductive
coating.
Charging methods
• Constant current — constant voltage (CC-CV) is by far the most common charging
method.

• The battery is charged at a constant current (CC) up to a voltage cutoff, followed by a

constant voltage (CV) hold until the current decays to near zero.

• The CV phase makes it possible to access more of the battery’s capacity without
exceeding the voltage limit, but, since the current decreases exponentially during the
CV phase, this extends the charging time significantly.

Pulse Charging
• Pulse charging protocols periodically interrupt the charge current with short rest periods.
•
• Pulse charging without CV reduces the charging time, while maintaining cycle life.

• A longer CV phase is still needed to access the capacity at the top of charge
Static and Dynamic Parameter Identification of Thevenin model

• C/30 rate is used for charging

and discharging at specific
temperature.

• C/30 discharge followed by a

C/30 charge.
 𝑉1 − 𝑉2
𝝉 𝑅𝑜 =
𝐼𝑏𝑎𝑡

𝑉2 − 𝑉3
𝑅1 =
𝐼𝑏𝑎𝑡

𝜏 = 𝑅1 𝐶1
Pre-charge circuit

Inverter
 𝑉2
𝑃=
𝑅
High-voltage contactor control

• For safety concerns, the battery pack internal high-

voltage bus is completely disconnected from the load
at both battery-pack external terminals when not in
use.

• This requires two high-current capable relays known

as contactors.

• Contactors used in battery packs are normally-open

devices, so if the BMS loses power for any reason, the
terminals of the contactor are de-energized and the
battery pack is disconnected from the load.
• The precharge resistor temperature is monitored.

• If it becomes too high the load may have a short-circuit fault.

• The startup process is aborted and the pack is disconnected from the load.

• Similarly, the bus and battery stack voltages are monitored.

• If these voltages don’t converge to the same neighborhood after a specified interval, the
load may have a short-circuit fault, The pack disconnects.
Isolation sensing
• High voltage battery packs are designed to be isolated electrically from chassis ground.

• Isolation sensing is needed to detect the ground fault.

• Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS) metric states that isolation is considered
sufficient if less than 2mA of current flows when connecting chassis ground to either the
positive or negative terminal of the battery pack via a direct short circuit.
• According to the safety criterion, Ri must be greater than Vb / 0.002A or Ri > 500 Vb.

• The lesser of R1 and R2 is the isolation resistance Ri.

• To do so, V1 and V2 are measured using a high-impedance analog-to-digital measurement
circuit, itself having impedance greater than 10MΩ.
 R2

R1

To find the smaller of the two resistances we solve for R1 if V1 < V2; otherwise, we solve for R2.
Battery Pack

Example:
3P6S module has eighteen cells
configured with three cells wired
in parallel and six modules in
series.
PCM-Parallel-Cell-Module

SCM-Series-Cell-Module