Cell Balancing

In multi-cell batteries, because of the larger number of cells used, we can expect that they will be subject to a higher failure rate than single cell batteries. The more cells used, the greater the opportunities to fail and the worse the reliability.

Batteries such as those used for EV and HEV applications are made up from long strings of cells in series in order to achieve higher operating voltages of 200 to 300 Volts or more are particularly vulnerable. The problems can be compounded if parallel packs of cells are required to achieve the desired capacity or power levels. With a battery made up from n cells, the failure rate for the battery will be n times the failure rate of the individual cells.

All cells are not created equal

The potential failure rate is even worse than this however due to the possibility of interactions between the cells. Because of production tolerances, uneven temperature distribution and differences in the ageing characteristics of particular cells, it is possible that individual cells in a series chain could become overstressed leading to premature failure of the cell. During the charging cycle, if there is a degraded cell in the chain with a diminished capacity, there is a danger that once it has reached its full charge it will be subject to overcharging until the rest of the cells in the chain reach their full charge. The result is temperature and pressure build up and possible damage to the cell. With every charge - discharge cycle the weaker cells will get weaker until the battery fails. During discharging, the weakest cell will have the greatest depth of discharge and will tend to fail before the others. It is even possible for the voltage on the weaker cells to be reversed as they become fully discharged before the rest of the cells also resulting in early failure of the cell. Various methods of cell balancing have been developed to address this problem by equalising the stress on the cells.

Self Balancing

Unbalanced ageing is less of a problem with parallel chains which tend to be self balancing since the parallel connection holds all the cells at the same voltage and at the same time allows charge to move beween cells whether or not an external voltage is applied. There can however be problems with this cell configuration if a short circuit occurs in one of the cells since the rest of the parallel cells will discharge through the failed cell exacerbating the problem.