Analysis and development of Battery Management System for electric vehicles

Our times are characterized by numerous electronic applications that are changing the lifestyle of many. There are devices designed for various situations and one of the biggest challenges is making sure these applications last as much as possible. For this purpose, rechargeable batteries are the best solution until now, guaranteeing a permanent and clean energy storage if we talk about the automotive industry. In fact, batteries are starting to be the most common electrical energy storage system for an electric vehicle (EV) or hybrid electric vehicle (HEV). In electric vehicles, a battery pack can provide several hundred volts, since various functions within a car depend on it, including powering the electric motor itself. The key aspect of all these applications is that the batteries must be constantly monitored, to have better energy consumption or to take safety measures. A Battery Management System (BMS) is an integrated system, designed to closely monitor battery circuits, implementing protective measures in case the battery is operating outside its normal operating area, but also acquiring data that can be used for better power management. The state of charge (SoC) is one of those data that must be tracked in a battery to optimize its performance since it is essential to know how much capacity is available. The purpose of this thesis work is to describe a set of functions of the battery management system, with particular attention to the development of an algorithm for the evaluation of the SoC, but still having the possibility of being able to apply these functions to generic management systems of a battery in vehicles. The system used for data validation is the one developed for the Formula SAE "Squadra Corse PoliTo" prototype.