Thesis Defense: Development of a Hardware-In-the-Loop Simulator for Battery Management Systems

Committtee:

• Giorgio Rizzoni, Chair (ME)
• Shawn Midlam-Mohler (ME)

Summary:

Battery technology is evolving rapidly with growing energy and power densities. The battery management system (BMS) becomes the key to improving vehicle safety, prolonging battery life, and reducing cost. This project focuses on constructing a test bench for BMS with Hardware-In-the-Loop (HIL) techniques. A battery model that is multi-cell-capable and real-time-capable simulates a battery pack's behavior as a series of connected cells. It takes into account aging and the manufacturing differences between cells that cause voltage deviation from the ideal reference voltage. Said model is then implemented into the dSpace mid-size HIL simulator. Several experiments were performed with the virtual battery model to validate prototyped BMS components and BMS software. These components include a module balancing board, a battery controller module, and a battery data logger. These tests indicate it is feasible to perform BMS HIL validation, and the presented battery model can be used to reduce the cost of developing BMS software and hardware.