Battery Management System (BMS) is an essential part in battery powered applications where large battery packs are in use. BMS ensures protection, controlling, supervision and accurate state estimation of battery pack to provide efficient energy management. However the particular application determines the accuracy and requirements of BMS where it has to implement; in electric vehicles (EVs) accuracy cannot be compromised. The software part of BMS estimates the states of the battery pack and takes the best possible decision. In EVs one of the key tasks of BMS’s software part is to provide the actual state of charge (SOC), which represents a crucial parameter to be determined, especially in lithium iron phosphate (LiFePO4) batteries, due to the presence of the high hysteresis behavior in the open circuit voltage than other kind of lithium batteries. This hysteresis phenomena appears with two different voltage curves during the charging and discharging process. The value of the voltage that the battery is going to assume during the off-loading operation depends on several factors, such as temperature, loop direction and ageing. In this research work, hybrid method is implemented in which advantages of several methods are achieved by implementing one technique combined with another. In this work SOC is calculated from coulomb counting method and in order to correct the error of SOC, an hysteresis model is developed and used due to presence of hysteresis effect in LiFePO4 batteries. An hysteresis model of the open circuit voltage (OCV) for a LiFePO4 cell is developed and implemented in MATLAB/Simulink© in order to reproduce the voltage response of the battery when no current from the cell is required (no load condition). Then the difference of estimated voltage and measured voltage is taken in order to correct the error of SOC calculated from coulomb counting or current integration method. To develop the hysteresis model which can reproduce the same voltage behavior, lot of experiments have been carried out practically in order to see the hysteresis voltage response and to see that how voltage curve change with the variation of temperature, ageing and loop direction. At the end model is validated with different driving profiles at different ambient temperatures.

In a context of an expected increasing use of Lithium-ion batteries in the transportation sector, Volvo AB is developing its own solutions for large electric vehicles. It is then beneficial to reduce the costs, the energy demand and the raw materials demand by improving the battery systems’ performances. For that purpose, understanding the physical phenomena which come into play in lithium ion cells is necessary. This project’s motivation has been to deepen the existing knowledge on one or a group of these phenomena which include those at the origin of the Open Circuit Voltage (OCV) hysteresis. It is characterized by the difference in charging and discharging voltage when the cell is at a resting state. These voltage differences might result in heat losses in the cells. In this thesis, the behaviour of the Open Circuit Voltage (OCV) under different operating conditions is studied, and a Preisach empirical hysteresis model is developed. The core part of the work consisted in experimental measurements of the Open-Circuit-Voltage of 10 Ah prismatic LiFePO4 (Lithium Iron Phosphate) cells. These measurements were completed using the Galvanostatic Intermittent Titration Technique (GITT) that consists of alternative current pulse and relaxation phases. The tests were performed using relaxation times ranging from 1 hour to 48 hours with the cells being under various cycles (series of charge and discharge). The impacts of the temperature, various current rates from 0.1C to 1C (1 A to 10 A) on the OCV and the voltage relaxation were evaluated. The amplitude of the OCV hysteresis that does not vanish after full relaxation, which is defined by the difference between the OCV charge and the OCV after discharge, was found to vary between 5 mV and 20-25 mV depending on the State-of-Charge of the cells. Two peaks are identified around 20-30% and 65-70% State-of-Charge. The measured OCV hysteresis with 24 hours relaxation is about half of the measured OCV hysteresis with 2-5 hours relaxation. The experiments also measured an apparent smaller OCV hysteresis when the magnitude of the current increases; this trend is to be verified after full relaxation. The temperature has an impact on the OCV which is averaging around ±0.2 mV/K. The analysis of the voltage relaxation behaviour described that at low temperatures and low C-Rates, the cells get closer to equilibrium voltage at a slower pace. In addition, a higher test time, characterized by longer relaxation times after each step and/or a larger number of steps within the same State of Charge (SOC) range, tends to increase the time required for the cell to reach an equilibrium. After completing the OCV measurements, a Preisach hysteresis model is developed based on the experimental results. The model predicts the OCV variations of an Lithium ferrophosphate (LFP) cell at ambient temperature when going through various charge and discharge cycles. Its estimated Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) is 3 mV, but the accuracy of the model could be partially confounded with measurement uncertainty. The main outcomes are a more accurate description of the voltage relaxation behaviour and a new estimation of the amplitude of the OCV hysteresis in LFP cells. / I en värld där det finns en förväntad ökning av användandet av litiumjonbatterier inom transportsektorn, utvecklar AB Volvo sina egna lösningar för stora elfordon som lastbilar. För att reducera kostnaderna, energibehovet och efterfrågan på råvaror, är det nödvändigt att förstå fysiska fenomen inom litiumjoncellerna eftersom det kan hjälpa till att förbättra systemens prestanda. Examensarbetets motivation är att fördjupa kunskapen om fenomenen vid uppkomsten av öppen kretsspänningshysteres inom litiumjärnfosfatceller. Denna hysteres definieras av skillnaden mellan öppen kretsspänning (Open-Circuit-Voltage eller OCV) under laddning och OCV under urladdning. Det orsakar över- och underspänning som ökar värmeförlusterna i litiumjoncellerna. Detta projekt studerar beteendet av både spänningsrelaxation och OCV för ett valt intervall av parametrar. Sedan utvecklas en Preisach empirisk modell. Huvuddelen av arbetet bestod i den experimentella mätningen av OCV av 10 Ah prismatiska LiFePO4 celler (Litiumjärnfosfatceller). Dessa experiment genomfördes medelst en mätprocedur som kallas Galvanostatic Intermittent Titration Technique eller Galvanostatisk intermittent titreringsteknik (GITT). Testerna innehåller växelvis strömpuls- och relaxationsfaser. Spänningsrelaxationsfaserna varade mellan 1 och 48 timmar under olika laddnings- och urladdningscykler. Inverkan av båda temperaturen och strömstyrkan (mellan 0.1C och 1C) på OCV utvärderades. Amplituden för OCV hysteresen som kvarstår efter full relaxation beräknades ligga mellan 5 mV och 20-25 mV beroende på cellersladdningstillstånd. Två hysterestoppar identifierades: en runt 70% och en andra mellan 20% och 30% laddningstillstånd. Hysteresen som mäts med 24 timmar av relaxation är runt hälften av hysteresen som mäts med två till fem timmar av relaxation. Med större strömstyrka är den uppmätta hysteresen lite lägre. Ytterligare tester bör göras för att verifiera att hysteresen fortfarande är lägre efter full relaxation. Temperaturen har en begränsad effekt på den totala hysteresen, men entropikoefficientensvärdet är i genomsnitt runt ± 0.2 mV/K. Analysen av relaxations beteende beskriver att en högre temperatur och strömstyrka ökar hastigheten med vilken jämviktspotentialen nås efter strömpulsen. Dessutom orsakaren ökning av den totala testlängden en långsammare relaxering. En längre testtid karaktäriseras av en längre relaxationstid efter varje strömpuls och/eller flera steg för laddningstillstånd. Efter OCV-mätningarna, byggdes en Preisach hysteresmodel med hjälp av de experimentella resultaten. OCV-variationer under olika laddnings och urladdnings cykler modellerades vid rumstemperatur med ett uppskattat minsta kvadratfel på cirka 3 mV. Modellen testades inte med ett begränsat antal cykler så den exakta noggrannheten behöver ytterligare verifieras för att få ner mätosäkerheten. Det huvudsakliga bidraget från detta examensarbete är uppskattning av amplituden för den hysteresen och beskrivningen av spänningsrelaxering efter olika strömpulser, såväl i längd som i amplitud.