A modified pulse charging method for lithium-ion batteries by considering stress evolution, charging time and capacity utilization

The stress evolution, total charging time and capacity utilization of pulse charging (PC) method are investigated in this paper. It is found that compared to the conventional constant current (CC) charging method, the PC method can accelerate the charging process but will inevitably cause an increase in stress and a decrease in capacity. The charging speed for PC method can be estimated by the mean current. By introducing stress control, a modified PC method called the PCCC method, which starts with a PC operation followed by a CC operation, is proposed. The PCCC method not only can accelerate charging process but also can avoid the stress raising and capacity loss occurring in the PC method. Furthermore, the optimal pulsed current density and switch time in the PCCC method is also discussed.