Pulse Train Charger for Improving Lead-Acid Battery Performance

• Main Authors: Xerxex Dan Gumera, 古瑞丹
• Other Authors: Wan-Rone Liou, PhD, Jia-Chuan Lin, PhD
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2013
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/04953819787963769005

碩士 === 國立臺北大學 === 電機工程學系 === 101 === Lead-acid battery has been the standard for basic energy storage device used in Electric Vehicles for more than 100 years, yet the common cause of failure remains the same – sulfation buildup on the battery plates. This study focuses on the design and implementation of a pulse train charger aimed mainly to reduce or reverse the main cause of battery failure caused by sulfation. This paper proposes a pulse train type of charging unique from that of conventional pulse charging. A burst of pulses at 20 kHz frequency is injected in the battery via a 288W/57.6V/5A Half Bridge LLC resonant converter. The pulse train charger was designed and implemented with a microcontroller that regulates the pulses and charge current delivered to the battery. The experiment is done through 2 sets of partially sulfated batteries subjected to charge and discharge cycles. Results show improvements in the discharge performance after tests. The discharge time improvement shows that the charge carrying capability of the battery has improved under pulse train charging. The discharge performance improvement is consistent with the battery impedance findings. Internal battery impedance after pulse train charging is reduced to a third from its original value.