Dual Bus Battery Balancing System with Current Limiter
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing battery balancing systems for large parallel battery configurations face challenges such as manual balancing errors, slow balancing rates, excessive heat generation, and high costs due to complex wiring and separate current limiting circuits, which can lead to safety issues and reliability concerns.
Innovation Solution
A dual-bus battery balancing system with a high bus and low bus architecture, utilizing diodes and a single current limiter to automatically balance voltages between batteries without the need for microcontrollers or extensive wiring, ensuring safe and controlled energy transfer.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If manual balancing is used to equalize battery voltages, then balancing can be achieved, but time consumption increases and user error occurs
Solution Approach 1:
The system enables automatic self-balancing through the dual-bus architecture with diodes and current limiter. When batteries are connected in parallel with voltage differences, current automatically flows through the diodes and current limiter to equalize voltages without human intervention, eliminating manual balancing operations and their associated time consumption and errors
2Reliability
If separate current limiting circuits are used for each battery, then current control is achieved, but device complexity and cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges multiple separate current limiting circuits into a single shared current limiter that serves all batteries through the dual-bus architecture. This single current limiter controls current flow for all battery balancing operations, dramatically reducing component count, wiring complexity, and system cost while maintaining reliable current control across all batteries
Solution Approach 2:
The single current limiter performs multiple functions simultaneously: it limits current for any battery connected to either the high bus or low bus, provides over-current protection for the entire battery bank, and enables balanced charging/discharging across all batteries. This universal component replaces what would traditionally require individual current limiters for each battery
3Quantity of substance
If batteries with large voltage differences are connected in parallel, then total capacity increases, but excessive current flow causes overheating and safety issues
Solution Approach 1:
The dual-bus architecture with diodes and current limiter acts as an intermediary between batteries with different voltages. When batteries are connected in parallel, the diodes selectively route current from higher voltage batteries through the current limiter to lower voltage batteries, preventing direct high-current flow and excessive heating while still enabling capacity aggregation
Solution Approach 2:
The system converts the potentially harmful voltage difference between batteries into a useful balancing mechanism. The voltage difference that would normally cause dangerous current surges is instead harnessed to automatically charge lower voltage batteries through the controlled path provided by diodes and current limiter, transforming a safety hazard into a self-balancing feature
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The dual-bus system effectively balances battery voltages in a safe, reliable, and cost-effective manner, reducing heat generation and complexity, while maintaining system reliability and scalability for large battery systems.
Implementation Method 1
a plurality of high bus diodes, each high bus diode connecting a high bus terminal to the high bus, wherein each high bus diode allows current to flow from its battery to the high bus if a voltage of its battery is higher than a voltage of the high bus
Implementation Method 2
a current limiter connecting the high bus and the low bus
Data Source
AI summary
A battery balancing system for parallel connected batteries for balancing batteries that are at dissimilar voltages. The system has first and second buses, connected by a current limiter. A high bus takes energy from the highest voltage battery or batteries in the system and transfers the energy through the current limiter to the low bus, which in turn delivers energy to the lowest voltage battery or batteries in the system.