Individual Charge Equalization Converter with Parallel Primary Winding of Transformer for Series Connected Lithium-Ion Battery Strings in an HEV

Abstract

In this paper, a charge equalization converter with parallel-connected primary windings of transformers is proposed. The proposed work effectively balances the voltage among Lithium-Ion battery cells despite each battery cell has low voltage gap compared with its state of charge (SOC). The principle of the proposed work is that the equalizing energy from all battery strings moves to the lowest voltage battery through the isolated dc/dc converter controlled by the corresponding solid state relay switch. For this research a prototype of four Lithium-Ion battery cells is optimally designed and implemented, and experimental results show that the proposed method has excellent cell balancing performance.