Battery response analyzer using a high current DC-DC converter as an electronic load

Abstract

This paper presents a battery response analyzer for high current levels. This system represents a very useful method to characterize simple battery and supercapacitor models, which commonly aid designers in the DC-DC converter development for electric vehicles (EV). A DC-DC converter is used to discharge batteries at a controlled current. The current is governed by a control unit which imposes a 100A pulse signal for the device under test (DUT). The response for the discharge pulse current is evaluated and then, a simple battery model is extracted. A complete low-cost test bench was developed in order to extract experimental data from batteries and super capacitors. Obtained measurements include high current pulse analysis and charge/discharge cycle to study the ageing of the device.