Method for balancing of high voltage battery pack

• US 8,648,570 B2
• Filed: 12/03/2008
• Issued: 02/11/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 12/31/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SK On Company Limited (SK Innovation Company Limited)
• Original Assignee: SK Innovation Company Limited
• Inventors: Lim, Jae Hwan, Han, Se Kyung
• Primary Examiner(s): Fantu, Yalkew
• Assistant Examiner(s): HERNANDEZ, MANUEL J
• Application Number:
  US12/808,331
• Publication Number:
  US 20100277123A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,896 Days
• Field of Search: 320/116, 320/118, 320/119
• US Class Current: 320/118
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/0014 Circuits for equalisation of charge between batteries
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/0016 using shunting, discharge or bypass circuits
• CPC Class Codes: Y02E 60/10 Energy storage using batteries

Abstract

The present invention relates to a cell balancing method for a high-voltage battery pack, and the method comprises steps of a) measuring an electromotive force of each cell composing the battery pack; b) selecting the cell to be balanced based on the electromotive force of the each cell; c) computing a total amount of charges used for balancing of the cell to be balanced; d) obtaining an accumulative amount of charges by accumulating an amount of current consumed for the balancing while performing the balancing of the cell to be balanced; and e) completing the balancing of the cell to be balanced when the accumulative amount of charges equals the total amount of charges.

Claims

1. A cell balancing method for a high-voltage battery pack, comprising steps of:

a) measuring an electromotive force of each cell composing the battery pack;

b) selecting a cell to be balanced based on the electromotive force of each cell;

c) computing a total amount of charges used for balancing of the cell to be balanced from a state of charge (SOC) of each cell corresponding to the electromotive force of each cell using a lookup table, the lookup table being a two-dimensional lookup table of the electromotive force, a temperature and the state of charge (SOC);

d) obtaining an accumulative amount of charges by measuring a terminal voltage of the cell to be balanced at a regular time interval when performing the balancing, finding a balancing amount of charges consumed for the regular time interval using another lookup table, and accumulating the balancing amount of charges while performing the balancing of the cell to be balanced, the other lookup table being a two-dimensional lookup table of the terminal voltage, the temperature and the state of charge (SOC);

e) completing the balancing of the cell to be balanced when the accumulative amount of charges equals the total amount of charges, wherein;

step a) further comprises the steps of;

(a1) discriminating whether or not a zero current state exists in which the current is not supplied from the battery pack to a load which is connected to the battery pack in a manner capable of receiving the current from the battery pack;

(a2) measuring a terminal voltage of each cell composing the battery pack to use the measured terminal voltage of each cell as the electromotive force of each cell when a duration time of the zero current state is greater than a first threshold time t1 if the zero current state exists; and

(a3) measuring the terminal voltage of each cell composing the battery pack to use the measured terminal voltage of each cell as the electromotive force of each cell when the current of the battery pack of less than a threshold amount of current i1 flows for greater than a second threshold time t2, if the zero current state does not exist;

the first threshold time t1 and the second threshold time t2 are 30 seconds to 60 seconds independently from each other, respectively; and

the threshold amount of current i1 is up to 3 A.

2. The cell balancing method according to claim 1, wherein step b) comprises selecting the cell having a deviation greater than an allowable deviation from a lowest electromotive force as the cell to be balanced.

3. The cell balancing method according to claim 2, wherein the allowable deviation is in a range of 2% to 5%.