BATTERY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM (BMS) IN ELECTRIC VEHICLES

Battery management systems (BMS) are electronic control circuits that monitor and
regulate how batteries charge and discharge. The main role of battery management
system includes detection of battery type, voltages, temperature, capacity, state of charge,
power consumption, remaining operational time, charging cycles, and other parameters in
electric vehicles.

The BMS must communicate with a variety of different on-board systems, work in real
time in quickly changing charge/discharge circumstances as the vehicle accelerates and
brakes, and operate in severe and uncontrolled settings

The main functions of Battery Management System includes:

1. Battery Monitoring and safety

Electric vehicles operates on high voltage battery packs. Hence, we need to ensure the
safe operation of these batteries. The BMS monitors parameters such as temperature,
input and output current, voltage across the battery packs to ensure the safe operation of
the battery. The current flowing towards the battery pack is monitored to avoid over-
charging.

To prevent the user from getting an electric shock, BMS ensure the vehicle frame is
completely isolated from the high voltage battery. It also makes sure the voltage across
the battery is not under-charged (discharging). The role of battery management system
also lies in the computation of State of Health (SoH), that indicates the remaining
capacity of the battery.
The determination of SoH helps in analyzing the whether the present battery conditions
could satisfy the requirements and estimating the lifetime of the battery. The electronic
system’s action can be physical like an emergency battery shutdown or informative like
reporting trouble to the user.

2. Thermal Management

BMS continuously monitors the temperature and performs the function of thermal
management. It measures the parameters like average temperature, coolant intake
temperature, coolant output temperature and temperatures of individual cells. This is
done to avoid the over-heating of the battery. BMS triggers several cooling mechanisms
whenever the battery is over-heated.

For instance, when the BMS senses an increase in temperature, the output power is
automatically reduced. Hence, power dissipation is reduced. The cooling medium in
thermal management systems can be either air or liquid. Air cooling systems depend on
either the convection of surrounding air or the airflow of the fans. But, air cooling
systems are considered to be inefficient and additional cooling mechanisms increases the
weight of the BMS.

In the case of liquid cooling systems, the battery is either submerged in the coolant or the
coolant can directly flow through the battery without contacting the battery. Liquid
cooling systems are considered to be more efficient than air cooling systems. This is
because liquid has better thermal conductivity than air.

3. Battery Balancing

BMS measures the State of Charge (SOC), that is used to indicate the charge level of the
battery. Lithium-ion batteries gives the best performance when the SOC is maintained
between the maximum and minimum charge limits. BMS helps in optimizing the battery
performance. BMS communicates with the motor controller to avoid the cell voltages to
reach a low value, while discharging.
After each cycle of charging of discharging, potential differences are developed on each
cells. These differences are amplified with time. As a matter of fact, this reduces the
energy derived from the battery. Therefore, cell balancing is performed to maintain the
individual cells at equal voltage levels. This battery equalization helps in increasing the
battery utilization and capacity.

The role of battery management system is to measure the individual cell voltages and
calculate their relative differences. This difference is a measure of amount of equalization
needed. Firstly, it is achieved by the BMS by draining the excess charge in a cell that are
more charged that the other cells, by connecting them to other loads(passive regulators).
Secondly, by shuffling the energy from the cells that are highly charged to the ones that
are least charged (balancers). Finally, by reducing the current flow to highly charged cells
and continue to charge the least charged ones.

Communication

BMS can communicate with the Electronic Control Unit (ECUs) of the vehicle. The
central controller of the BMS communicates internal hardware at cell well, or with other
external hardware. It transfers the information about the battery parameters to the motor
controller for the smooth functioning of the vehicle. BMS is responsible for
communicating with the on-board charger. In this way, it monitors and controls the
charging of the battery.
High level external communication can use several methods such as serial
communications, CAN bus communications and wireless communications. In the case of
DC charging, BMS sends instructions directly to the EVSE to control the charging
process.

5. Energy Recovery

Another function of BMS includes recharging the battery using the energy derived from
regenerative braking. This energy is obtained when the excess kinetic energy is converted
back into chemical energy or any other form. Further this energy is used to recharge the
battery. The energy is transferred to the battery pack by the BMS.