Task: Testing Thermal Monitoring Functions of a BMS Controller
During the entire life cycle, batteries are subjected to temperature changes. The temperature of a battery and its cells is influenced by external factors, such as the ambient temperature, but also by internal electrochemical processes of the battery, e.g., during charging. Thermal monitoring of a lithium-ion battery pack with a battery management system (BMS) is important for performance optimization and to avoid damages such as thermal runaway, increasing the safe use of batteries.
Challenge: Accurate Simulation of Battery Characteristics
However, to simulate the electrical and thermal characteristic of a battery, the thermal behavior of each individual battery cell and its thermal interaction with neighbor cells must be considered. Moreover, the influence of the battery pack’s cooling system must be accounted for in the simulation models. Setting up these models requires know-how and is time consuming.
Solution: Ready-to-Use Battery Models for Real-Time Simulation
The dSPACE ready-to-use and open simulation model ASM Battery provides the setup for the testing of the thermal monitoring function of BMS controllers. The ASM Battery multicell model supports the coupled thermal-electrical simulation of each battery cell. The simulated temperatures of individual cells point to a certain temperature distribution pattern within the battery pack. A cooling plate is simulated for up to six battery pack surfaces by defining cooling areas with a specific heat flux density. This results in temperature signals that can be used for the temperature sensors at their individual locations. The DS5486 Temperature Simulation Board generates resistive temperature sensor signals from the simulated temperatures. Additionally, the voltage of each individual cell can be emulated with the dSPACE Battery Cell Voltage Emulation Board (DS5481 and DS5482). All parameters, such as the initial temperature of each cell and the geometric battery topology, can be set with an intuitive graphical parameterization in ModelDesk.
