Inrush current estimation and hot-swapping for safe parallel battery pack

ABSTRACT

Batteries used in electric vehicles and microgrid applications use battery modules connected in series to satisfy the voltage required for each system, and battery modules are connected in parallel to increase capacity. In this parallel connected system, in order to disconnect and reconnect a specific battery module or to reconnect a new battery module, the battery module to be newly connected should have a small state of charge (SOC) difference from the existing battery modules. In particular, when a new battery is to be connected under a load current, there is a problem that excessive inrush current may occur in a specific battery module due to the load current distributed to each module and the current due to the SOC difference. Therefore, in this paper, we propose a method of estimating the inrush current through an equivalent electrical modelling analysis for the case where a battery module is newly added in a system in which the battery modules are connected in parallel. In addition, the power management algorithm for the battery pack system with inrush current estimation is presented. The proposed method is validated through simulations and experiments of a battery pack system in which 10 battery modules of 710V and 120Ah are connected in parallel.

KEYWORDS:

• Inrush current estimation
• parallel-connected rechargeable battery system
• electrical circuit modelling
• hot-swapping
• reliable safety

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by research fund from Chosun University, 2016 (K207462001-1).