Simulation of Active Balancing Approach Utilizing Capacitor-Based Topology for Battery Management System

Batteries are critical components in electric bicycles. During usage, battery quality can deteriorate due to several factors, including overcharging, deep discharge, unbalanced charging across cells, short circuits during charging, and high temperatures. Therefore, the Battery Management System (BMS) is needed, which will be integrated into the electric bicycle battery pack. However, the battery pack has a fragility to temperature. This study simulated active balancing to optimize battery pack performance at different temperatures. Moreover, capacitor-based topology was applied in the active balancing to transfer energy at the charging level of battery cells. Thereby, the temperature effects during the transfer charge level of each battery can be observed. This study tested the proposed method in three conditions: undercharging, discharging, and idle conditions, as well as temperature differences between each battery cell. This study aims to determine whether the battery is in optimal condition for each cell at different temperatures. The results showed promising results with different temperatures and SoC. However, the performance system depends on the initial SoC of batteries. Moreover, similar results were obtained during charging, idle, and discharging conditions. Thus, the required time for each battery to achieve equal energy transfer will differ.