A bidirectional battery-to-battery energy cycler for battery pack testing and validation

Abstract

Lithium-ion batteries are becoming popular not only in the Electric Vehicle (EV) market but also in other sectors because of their salient features like high terminal voltage, fast charge/discharge capabilities, and energy density to size ratio. Batteries are designed for applications depending upon their requirements. Testing and validation of batteries before they are deployed for usage is an essential step in the manufacturing process. Cycling battery energy involves charging using the grid and discharging into resistive loads repeatedly while motoring the test results. This method of cycling the batteries not only wastes energy but also limits the rate at which they can be discharged due to dissipation issues. A need for a test system capable of allowing higher charge/discharge rates while being able to conserve energy exists. This research work presents a battery tester capable of proving higher C-rate capabilities while conserving energy by cycling it between two batteries.