Modular design and validation for battery management systems based on dual-concentration architectures

This study presents a modular design and validation for a battery management system (BMS) based on a dual-concentration architecture. This architecture enables an improvement of the BMS's performance, such as the balancing process and a reduction in the number of components, including power switches, switching arrays, and energy storage elements, required by the BMS. Generally, even an active balancing process still causes some energy loss, so this study applies a modified flyback converter with an active clamp for the battery module balancing process, which has a higher conversion efficiency, especially in low-power conditions. The simulation results of the balancing circuit are consistent with the measured results. To quantify the improvement of the balancing strategies on the balancing results, this study also presents four balancing strategies for the proposed BMS, wherein the balancing duration and maximum voltage error of the balancing strategy (considering both the voltage error and balancing duration) can be reduced by approximately 34 % and 73 %, respectively, compared with the worst-case scenario in the four balancing strategies. • A broad and recent review of various balancing methods are provided. • Researches of various modular BMS design are mentioned and compared. • Topologies and system specifications of the proposed dual-concentrated BMS architecture are introduced. • Balancing strategies are raised and discussed about their influences to the balancing processes.