This article has been accepted for publication in a future issue of this journal, but has not been
fully edited. Content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI 10.1109/TIE.2018.2795578, IEEE
Transactions on Industrial Electronics
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Equalization of Lithium-ion Battery Pack based
on Fuzzy Logic Control in Electric Vehicle
Yan Ma, Peng Duan, Yanshuai Sun, and Hong Chen, Senior Member, IEEE
Abstract—A non-dissipative equalization scheme based
on fuzzy logic control (FLC) is presented to improve the
inconsistency of series-connected Lithium-ion batteries.
The two-stage bidirectional equalization circuit with energy
transferring inductors is designed to implement the equal-
ization of cell to cell for battery packs, and the equalization
circuit paves the way for module-based equalization of
hardware.The equalization based on the state of charge
(SOC) is proposed in this paper, and Thevenin equivalent
circuit model of Lithium-ion battery as well as the Extended
Kalman Filter (EKF) algorithm is employed for SOC esti-
mation. For effective equalization, the FLC is proposed to
reduce energy consumption and equalization time. The FLC
strategy is constructed with a set of membership functions
to describe the cells equalization behavior. A comparison
of the proposed FLC with the mean-difference algorithm
is carried out to validate the advantages of the proposed
scheme. Simulation results show that the standard devia-
tion of final SOC reduces by 18.5%, and equalization time
decreases by 23% for FLC compared with mean-difference
algorithm under NEDC working condition. The energy effi-
ciency improves by 5.54% compared with mean-difference
algorithm. In addition, the two-stage bidirectional equal-
ization circuit has good performance and improves the
inconsistency.
Index Terms—Extended Kalman filter (EKF), energy
transferring inductors, fuzzy logic control (FLC), inconsis-
tency, state of charge (SOC), two-stage bidirectional equal-
ization.
I. I NTRODUCTION
ECENTLY electric vehicles (EV) have become the sub-
R ject of intense research. Lithium-ion battery is wide-
ly considered as the most capable source candidate in EV
because of its advantages of good safety performance, low
self-discharge rate, high energy density and long life [1]–[4].
However, since the cells are limited by voltage and capacity,
battery packs with hundreds or thousands of cells connected
Manuscript received March 31, 2017; revised August 11, 2017 and
October 28, 2017; accepted January 03, 2018. This work was supported
in part by the National Nature Science Foundation of China under
Grant No. 61520106008, No.U1564207 and No.61503149, in part by
the industrial innovation special funds of Jilin Province under Grant
No.2018C035-2, and in part by the Graduate Innovation Fund of Jilin
University under Grant No.2017008.
Yan Ma and Hong Chen are with the State Key Laboratory
of Automotive Simulation and Control, Jilin University, Changchun
130025, China (fax: 86-85094831; e-mail: mayan maria@163.com;
chenh@jlu.edu.cn).
Peng Duan and Yanshuai Sun are with School of Communication
Engineering, Jilin University, Changchun 130025, China (e-mail: duan-
penggf@163.com; sunysjlu@163.com).
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in parallel and/or in series are required to meet the power
and energy requirements of EV [5]. Unfortunately, serious
inconsistency between cell voltages or state of charge (SOC) is
generated due to manufacturing inconsistencies of individual
cells in the battery pack. Furthermore, the inconsistency tends
to grow over time after a number of charge/discharge cycles
because of different self-discharge rates, different internal
resistances and temperature variations [6]. This reduces the
available capacity of the battery pack and even leads to cells
degradation and safety hazards due to the over-charge or
over-discharge of the cells. Therefore, battery equalization is
essential to prevent these issues and extend the life of battery
packs.
Based on equalization circuits, battery equalization is cat-
egorized into dissipation and non-dissipation method. The
dissipation method [7], [8] is to dissipate the extra capacity
through resistances or other energy-consuming components
for the target of equalization. The circuit structure of dis-
sipation method is simple, but it is limited by the loss of
equalization energy and the consumption of equalization time.
Moreover, the energy stored in the more charged cells is
lost as heat [9]. Therefore, the dissipation method may cause
thermal management issues because of the large amount of
heat dissipated among cells. On the other hand, the non-
dissipation method [10], [11] is relatively efficient and it uses
energy storage components to achieve the energy transfer
between the batteries. The energy storage components of non-
dissipation equalization are generally capacitors, inductors or
transformer. This paper proposes a two-stage bidirectional
equalization circuit which uses inductors to deliver energy,
and the equalization circuit can solve the problem of size and
cost for battery equalizer effectively and the construction is
highly reliable [12].
The battery equalization algorithms can be mainly divided
into two categories: voltage-based [13] and SOC-based equal-
ization algorithms [14], [15]. The voltage-based equalization
algorithm is easy to realize because the cell voltages can be
measured directly. However the voltage-based battery equal-
ization is not suitable for evaluating the battery inconsistency
due to the battery voltage is the external characteristics which
cannot completely the capacity and internal resistance. On the
other hand, the SOC represents a comprehensive performance
of the battery, which is affected by battery voltage, battery
current, environment temperature, internal resistance and SOH
(state of health). As a result, the SOC-based equalization
algorithm has been proposed to improve the battery incon-
sistency [16], [17] and achieve battery optimal configura-
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tion. Many methods have been proposed for SOC estimation 1) Discharging of Cell2 : M1 a is turned on when the control
due to accurate SOC estimation is necessary for the SOC- signal from equalization control system is input. A loop
based equalization algorithm [18]–[20]. This paper proposes consists of Cell2 , L1 and M1 a , and the red arrow shows
a model-based SOC estimation method which utilizes the the current direction. The electric energy is converted into
Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) algorithm, and the method can magnetic energy, and stored in L1 . The current of L1 is as
implement SOC estimation accurately. follows
V2 ( )
An efficient optimization equalization algorithm is neces-
Ron
sary after the equalization circuit is chosen. The advantage iL = 1 − e−t L , t = 0 → ton (1)
of the ant colony algorithm is suitable for determining an Ron
optimal path on a map [21], but its high computational cost where Ron is the total resistance of the loop when M1 a
leads to difficulty of implemenation. The mean-difference is turned on. L is the inductance value of L1 . ton is the
method [22] can implement battery equalization easily, but the turn-on time of M1 a . V2 is the voltage of Cell2 .
equalization efficiency is not high. In addition, it is difficult 2) Charging of Cell1 : The current of L1 reaches maximum
to build a precise mathematical model for battery pack due value iP eak when the M1 a is turned off, and the magnetic
to the fact that each battery pack contains many cells and energy stored in L1 is released. The loop consists of Cell1 ,
the cells interact with each other. Therefore, in this paper, the L1 and D1 b , and blue arrow is the current direction. Cell1
FLC [23], [24] which does not require accurate mathematical stops charging when the SOC of Cell1 is higher than the
models is used to improve battery inconsistency and optimize SOC of Cell2 . Otherwise, Cell1 is charged by L1 until
the equalization efficiency due to its strong non-linearity, the voltage of L1 cannot make D1 b positive conduct.The
robustness, adaptability and fault tolerance. current of L1 is found to be
The paper is organized as follows. The two-stage bidi- ( )
Rof f R
rectional equalization circuit is introduced in Section 2. In iL = iP eak e(ton −t) L − VR 1 +VD
1 − e (ton −t) of
L
f
,
of f
Section 3, SOC estimation based on equivalent circuit model
t = ton → Ts
is elaborated. In Section 4, FLC for SOC-based equalization is
(2)
presented. Finally the conclusions related to the equalization
where Rof f is the total resistance of the loop when M1 a
technique are given in Section 5.
is turned off. Ts is the switching period for the converter
of M1 a . V1 is the voltage of Cell1 . VD is the conduction
II. E QUALIZATION CIRCUIT CONFIGURATION pressure drop D1 b .
The non-dissipative equalization methods can be grouped 3) Degaussing: There is still some energy in the inductor L1
into four topologies: cell to cell, cell to pack, pack to cell when the charging process has finished. The inductor L1
and cells to pack to cells. This paper chooses cell to cell will eventually reach the magnetic saturation if L1 is not
configuration because it can implement battery equalization degaussed with the equalization processing. Therefore, the
quickly and efficiently [25]. A bidirectional equalization cir- circuit consists of R1 and L1 to consume the residual
cuit is proposed, which is based on the Buck-Boost circuit and energy stored in L1 .
takes power inductors to deliver energy [26]. The equalization
circuit is shown in Fig.1, which consists of two inductors L1
and L2 , two resistances R1 and R2 as well as four power Module N Module 2 Module 1

MOSFETs with body diodes. The power MOSFETs are the

battery equalization control switch. Taking Cell1 and Cell2 as CellNk CellN 2 CellN 1 Cell2k Cell22 Cell21 Cell1k Cell12 Cell11

examples, where the SOC of Cell2 is higher than the SOC of

Cell1 . The equalization process is divided into three steps, and
the working principle of the equalization circuit is analyzed
as follow.
Driving signal
Driving signal of second
stage equalization
M 1_ a M 1_b
Fig. 2. Two-stage bidirectional equalization circuit.
D1_ D D1_b
R1 L1 The equalization control switch M1 b is controlled to
Cell3 Cell2 Cell1 achieve battery equalization when the SOC of Cell1 is higher
than the SOC of Cell2 . The equalization circuit can complete
R2 battery equalization between any adjacent cells. To pave the
D2 _ D L2 D2 _b way for the battery equalization of hardware module, the two-
stage bidirectional equalization circuit is proposed, shown in
M2_a M2_E Fig.2. The two-stage bidirectional equalization circuit includes
N modules, and each module contains K cells. The scheme
Fig. 1. Bidirectional equalization circuit. can solve the problem of size and cost for battery equalizer
effectively.

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This article has been accepted for publication in a future issue of this journal, but has not been fully edited. Content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI 10.1109/TIE.2018.2795578, IEEE
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III. SOC ESTIMATION BASED ON EKF

3.5
A. Thevenin Equivalent Circuit Model

OCV (V)
3 Point of Charging
Charging Curve

RS Point of Discharging
2.5 Discharging Curve

R OCV−SOC Curve
I
2
CS
0 20 40 60 80 100
SOC (%)
3.5

OCV((V)
VS VOC
3
2.5
VD 0 50
SOC(%)
100
Fig. 4. The relationship between OCV and SOC.

Load Current(A)
1
Fig. 3. Thevenin equivalent circuit model.
0
This paper proposes the SOC-based battery equalization,
−1
and Thevenin equivalent circuit model is chosen for SOC
estimation, which is shown in Fig.3. VOC is the Open Circuit 0 0.5 1 1.5 2
Voltage (OCV). R is the ohmic resistance. The RC network Time(s)
x 10
4

consists of the polarization resistance RS and the polarization

capacitance CS , which is used to simulate the polarization Fig. 5. Load current profile for model validation.
effect of battery; VS is the voltage over the RC network. VD
is the terminal voltage. I represents load current, which is 3.5

Terminal Voltage(V)
defined positive for charging and negative for discharging. 3.4
The definition of SOC is 3.3
∫
ηI(t)dt 3.2
SOC(t) = SOC(0) + (3)
QN 3.1
Voltage of Model
Measure Voltage

where SOC(0) represents the initial value of SOC. η is 3

0 0.5 1 1.5 2
the charge-discharge efficiency. QN is the rated capacity of Time(s) 4
x 10
battery.
According to Kirchhoff’s law, the state equation and the Fig. 6. Terminal voltage profiles for model validation.
output equation of Lithium-ion battery can be described as
follows: 0.02
{
Voltage Error(V)

S ȮC(t) = I(t)/QN 0
(4)
V̇S (t) = −VS (t)/τS + I(t)/CS −0.02

−0.04
VD (t) = VOC (t) + VS (t) + R · I(t) (5)
−0.06
0 0.5 1 1.5 2
where time constant τS = RS · CS . Time(s) 4
x 10
The state variables are selected as x = [SOC VS ]T , I and
VD are the input and the output, respectively. The Equation Fig. 7. Terminal voltage error for model validation.
(4) can be expressed as
] [
[ ] [ ] [ ] 1 0
where coefficient matrix A = and coeffi-
S ȮC 0 0 1/QN 0 1 − T /τs
ẋ(t) = = x(t) + · I(t)
V̇S 0 − 1/τS 1/CS T
cient matrix B = [T /QN T /Cs ] . T is the sample time,
(6) w(k) is the process noises, v(k) is the measurement noises.
Equation (5) and Equation (6) are discretized as Equation This paper chooses A123-26650 Lithium-ion battery for the
(7) and Equation (8). experiment of SOC estimation, whose nominal capacity and
voltage are 1.6Ah and 3.2V, respectively. The OCV-SOC curve
VD (k) = g(x(k), I(k)) + v(k) (7) is shown in Fig.4, which is obtained by the fast calibration
experiments [27].
[ ] In order to obtain the parameters R, RS and CS in equa-
1 0 tion (4) and equation (5), the terminal voltage is measured
x(k + 1) = · x(k)
0 1 − T /τS (8) under the custom current condition which is shown in Fig.5.
T
+[T /QN T /CS ] · I(k) + w(k) Therefore, the parameters of battery model are identified as
R = 0.0415Ω, RS = 0.0403Ω and CS = 760.354F by the

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recursive least-squares method [28].
In order to verify the accuracy of the model described
by equation(4) and equation (5), the comparison of actual
measurement voltage and the output voltage of the model
is shown in Fig.6 under the custom current condition. The
modeling error of Thevenin equivalent circuit model is shown
in Fig.7.
From Fig.6, the terminal voltage of the model with blue
curve keeps waving near the measured voltage with green
curve. It is seen from Fig.7 that the modeling error of Thevenin
equivalent circuit model is within ±0.06V . Thus, the first-
verify the robustness of SOC estimation based on EKF when
SOC initial values are different. The results of SOC estimation
and SOC estimation error based on EKF are shown in Fig.9
and Fig.10 respectively. The SOC estimation value of EKF
fluctuates near the reference value because the large fluctuation
of the operating current. The error of SOC estimation based
on EKF is less than 1%, and the final error of SOC estimation
is close to zero.
2
0

Current/A
order equivalent circuit model built in this paper is accurate.

−2
B. EKF Algorithm for SOC Estimation
The EKF is effective for nonlinear dynamic system, which −4
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200
can improve the estimation performance of KF. Based on Time /s
Thevenin equivalent circuit model, EKF is used to estimate
the SOC of Lithium-ion battery and filter out the noise Fig. 8. Current profile for SOC estimation.
interference.
The step of EKF algorithm is given in Table I. E is unit
82
matrix. w(k) and v(k) are uncorrelated Gaussian variable with
zero-mean. Q(k) and R(k) are the covariances of w(k) and 80
SOC /%
v(k) respectively.
78 EKF
TABLE I Reference Curve
T HE STEPS OF THE EKF ALGORITHM
76
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200
Time /s
State space model
x( k  1) A ˜ x (k )  B ˜ I (k )  w(k ) Fig. 9. SOC estimation results based on EKF.
VD (k ) g ( x( k ), I (k ))  v(k )
Definition
wg ( x(k ), I (k ))
C (k )
wx
x xˆ ( k )
1
Initialization
Initial state estimates
Error /%

xˆ(0) E > x(0) @ 0.5

Initial state error covariance
P (0) E[( xˆ  (0)  xˆ (0))( xˆ  (0)  xˆ (0))7 ] 0
Calculating for k 0,1,L n
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200
Time update Time /s
State estimate propagation
Fig. 10. SOC estimation error based on EKF.
xˆ  (k  1) A ˜ xˆ (k )  B ˜ I (k )
Error covariance propagation
P  (k  1) A ˜ P(k ) ˜ AT  Q
˄k˅
Measurement update IV. F UZZY LOGIC CONTROL FOR SOC- BASED
Kalman update matrix EQUALIZATION
L(k  1) P  (k  1) ˜ C (k  1)T ˜
1
It is difficult to build a precise mathematical model for
¬ªC (k  1) ˜ P (k  1) ˜ C ( k  1)  R ˄k  1˅º¼
 T
battery pack due to the fact that each battery pack contains
State estimate update
many cells and the cells interact with each other. Therefore,
xˆ (k  1) xˆ  (k  1)  L(k  1) ˜ ª¬VD (k  1)  g ( x (k  1), I (k  1)) º¼
Error covariance update the FLC is proposed to implement the SOC-based equalization
P ( k  1) > E  L ( k  1) ˜ C k @ ˜ P  ( k  1) scheme. The FLC, an intelligent algorithm, is suitable for
the systems whose mathematical models are hard to develop.
] [
1 0 The FLC algorithm with good robustness can be used in
Let SOC(0) = 80%, P (0) = and T = 1s. nonlinear and time-varying systems. In addition, FLC has good
0 1
Simulations of SOC estimation is operated under the current adaptation because the fuzzy rules can be easily changed if
profile, which is shown in Fig.8. The SOC obtained by ampere necessary.
hour integral method is chosen as the reference curve [29], In this paper, the two-stage bidirectional equalization circuit
and SOC initial value of reference curve is set at 81% to is designed to implement the equalization for battery packs.

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Start

Current/voltage acquisition

SOC estimation of cells based on

EKF

Calculate SOC average of

Calculate the SOC each module
differences of cells
Calculate SOC differences
of modules

More than start More than start

No No
threshold of cell threshold of module
equalization equalization

Yes Yes

Cell equalization based on Module equalization based

FLC on FLC

No Reach the stop Reach the stop No

threshold of cell threshold of module
equalization equalization

Yes Yes

End

Fig. 11. Block diagram of two-stage equalization control algorithm based on FLC.

First, we set the start threshold and stop threshold of the two- in Fig.12. The fuzzifier is used to convert the exact inputs to
stage bidirectional equalization. Next we acquire the voltage fuzzy values. Then the fuzzy values are sent to the inference
and current of cells, which are used to estimate the SOC engine and processed with fuzzy rules. The results from
of cells. Subsequently we calculate the SOC differences of inference engine are sent to the defuzzifier and converted
cells and the SOC differences of modules. During the battery to crisp values. In this paper, the FLC applied in both two
equalization process, the two-stage bidirectional equalization stages to implement the equalization of SOC. The design of
is applied to implement the battery equalization based on equalization controller in both two stages is same, and the
FLC. For cells, the equalization of cells starts when the SOC membership-functions and rules of two stages are same.
difference of the cells exceeds the start threshold of cell. The
equalization of cells stops when the SOC difference of the + SOC Rule Base
cells is less than the stop threshold of cell. For modules, Fuzzifier 1 P ( x)
P ( z) Iequ
the SOC of each module is the average value of N cells in SOC Inference Engine Defuzzifier
Fuzzifier 2 P ( y)
module. Similarly, the equalization of modules starts when the
SOC difference of the modules exceeds the start threshold of
Fig. 12. Block diagram of the FLC.
module. The equalization of modules stops when the SOC
difference of the modules is less than the stop threshold of
The inputs of FLC are the SOC differences values and SOC
module. Finally, the equalization controllers can be shut down
averages values of cells, which can be expressed as
when the battery equaliztion is finished. The block-diagram
of the two-stage equalization control algorithm based on FLC
for battery packs is show in Fig.11. ∆SOC = SOCi − SOCi−1 (9)

A. Design of Fuzzy Logic Control

SOC = (SOCi + SOCi−1 )/2 (10)
FLC is employed to regulate the equalization current of
the proposed equalization scheme. The FLC consists of the where SOCi is the ith cell, SOCi and SOCi−1 are adjacent
fuzzifier, inference engine, rule base and defuzzifier, as shown in battery pack.

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VS S M L VL output corresponding to the input is shown in Fig.14.

1.0

0.5
4

0 3
0.3

Current /A
0 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2 0.25
(a) SOC differences 2

S M L 1
1.0
0 0
0.3
0.5 0.2 0.5
0.1 SOC−average
SOC−diffierent 0 1
0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 Fig. 14. Switching surface of the FLC output corresponding to the input.
(b) SOC average
VS S M L VL
1.0 TABLE II
RULE BASE OF FLC FOR LINGUISTIC VARIABLE
0.5
Iequ ∆SOC
0 VS S M L VL
0 1.0 2.0 3.0 4.0
(c) equalization current S S M L VL L
SOC M M M M L L
Fig. 13. Membership function of FLC. L VS S S S M

The fuzzy inference engine transforms the fuzzy rule base

The equalization current Iequ is the output of FLC. To keep
battery equalization with a safe region, the Root Mean Square
(RMS) value of allowable maximum equalization current for
cells is 4.0A. The range of ∆SOC is set as 0 to 0.3 in
this paper. Then the input and output are divided into fuzzy
subsections and expressed by linguistic variable. The fuzzy
variable of SOC differences µ(x) is divided into VL (very
large), L (large), M (medium), S (small) and VS (very small).
The fuzzy variable of SOC averages µ(y) is divided into three
fuzzy subsets, which are L, M and S. The fuzzy variable of
output µ(z) with respect to the battery equalization current
Iequ is divided to VL, L, M, S and VS. The triangular
fuzzy membership function is chosen in this paper because
the triangular membership function has the characteristics
of simplified calculation and good control performance. The
membership function of FLC is shown in Fig.13.
The fuzzy rule base is obtained by the knowledge and
practical experience of the battery equalization control process.
1) When ∆SOC and SOC are relatively small, medium Iequ
should be used to improve the equalization speed and
prevent to over discharge of cells.
2) When ∆SOC and SOC are relatively large, relatively
small Iequ should be used to prevent over charge of cells.
3) When ∆SOC is relatively small and SOC is relatively
large, small Iequ should be used.
4) When ∆SOC is relatively large and SOC is relatively
small, relatively large Iequ should be used to improve the
equalization speed.
The form of fuzzy rules is presented as: ”If ∆SOC is
LGS∆SOC and SOC is LGSSOC , then Iequ is LGSIequ ”.
The fuzzy rules is obtained by battery experiment results and
the fuzzy rules table for linguistic variables is two-dimensional
(3×5), shown in Table II. The switching surface of the FLC
into a fuzzy linguistic output. The fuzzy linguistic output is
unavailable signal for equalization control system. Therefore,
the defuzzification is necessary, which is the process of relating
the output membership function to a value. Finally the equal-
ization current is converted into the corresponding switching
period of the driving signal. The centroid defuzzification
method is utilized in this paper, as shown in Equation (11):
∫
zµ(z) dz
Iequ = ∫ (11)
µ(z) dz
where µ(z) is the fuzzy results from inference, as shown in
Fig.12.
B. Simulation and Experimental Results
The battery pack studied in this paper is composed of 32
cells. The battery pack is connected in series by 4 modules,
and each module has 8 cells. The simulation architecture
of the battery equalization is built in MATLAB/Simulink,
which consists of data acquisition unit, SOC estimation unit
and battery equalization unit. Data acquisition unit provides
effective data for battery SOC estimation. The SOC estimation
unit supplies the judgment for battery equalization. Battery
equalization unit is used to implement battery equalization
and improve battery inconsistency, which mainly includes the
equalization circuit and FLC module.
To test and verify the proposed scheme of FLC for battery
equalization based SOC estimation, a comparison is made
with the mean-difference algorithm in the standing state (no
working condition) for the validation of effectiveness of FLC.
The equalization results by mean-difference algorithm and
FLC in the standing state are demonstrated in Fig.15 and
Fig.16, respectively. The maximum equalization times for

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Battery1 Battery2 Battery3 Battery4 Battery5 Battery6 Battery7 Battery8

SOC of module 2 /%
SOC of module 1 /%
60 60

50 50

40 40

30 30
0 500 1000 1220 1500 0 500 910 1000 1500
Time /s Time /s
SOC of module 3 /%

SOC of module 4 /%
60 60

50 50

40 40

30 30
0 500 970 1000 1500 1460 1500
0 500 1000
Time /s Time /s

Fig. 15. Equalization results based on mean-difference algorithm in the standing state.

Battery1 Battery2 Battery3 Battery4 Battery5 Battery6 Battery7 Battery8

SOC of module 1 /%

SOC of module 2 /%
60 60

50 50

40 40

30 30
0 500 950 1000 1500 0 500 710 1000 1500
Time /s Time /s
SOC of module 3 /%

SOC of module 4 /%

60 60

50 50

40 40

30 30
0 500 750 1000 1500 0 500 1000 1150 1500
Time /s Time /s

Fig. 16. Equalization results based on FLC in the standing state.

mean-difference algorithm and FLC are 1460s and 1150s FLC are demonstrated in Fig.17 and Fig.18, respectively. The
respectively. The minimum equalization times for mean- maximum equalization times for mean-difference algorithm
difference algorithm and FLC are 910 s and 710 s respectively. and FLC are 1400s and 1070s respectively. The minimum
The average of times for mean-difference algorithm and FLC equalization times for mean-difference algorithm and FLC
are 1140 s and 890 s respectively. The FLC improves the are 890 s and 670 s respectively. The average of times for
equalization times by 22% compared with mean-difference mean-difference algorithm and FLC are 1097.5 s and 845
algorithm in the standing state. s respectively. The FLC improves the equalization time by
23% compared with mean-difference algorithm under NEDC
The advantages of the proposed scheme have been validated working condition.
in the standing state. In addition, in order to better verify
the advantages of the proposed scheme of FLC for battery The equalization current profiles of module one for two
equalization based SOC estimation, the NEDC (New European schemes under NEDC working condition are shown in Fig.19.
Driving Cycle) working condition is utilized to obtain the As seen from Fig.19 (a), the current profiles are different due
practical effect. A comparison is implemented with the mean- to the equalization of cells before 1200s. The current profiles
difference algorithm for the validation of effectiveness of of each cell become consistent after 1200s, which means that
FLC under NEDC working condition. Moreover, in order to the cells in module one have achieved equalization, the current
emphasize the advantages of FLC for battery equalization, of equalization circuit is almost zero and only NEDC working
the differences of initial SOC between cells are extremely condition current is left. Similarly, the module one based
large, which is not reasonable in application but efficient for on FLC has achieved equalization at 930s. In addition, the
test. The equalization results of mean-difference algorithm and equalization time in Fig.19 is consistent with the equalization

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This article has been accepted for publication in a future issue of this journal, but has not been fully edited. Content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI 10.1109/TIE.2018.2795578, IEEE
Transactions on Industrial Electronics
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Battery1 Battery2 Battery3 Battery4 Battery5 Battery6 Battery7 Battery8

SOC of module 1 /%

SOC of module 2 /%
60 60

50 50

40 40

30 30
0 500 1000 1200 1500 0 500 890 1000 1500
Time /s Time /s
SOC of module 3 /%

SOC of module 4 /%
60 60

50 50

40 40

30 30
0 500 900 1000 1500 0 500 1000 1400 1500
Time /s Time /s

Fig. 17. Equalization results based on mean-difference algorithm under NEDC.

Battery1 Battery2 Battery3 Battery4 Battery5 Battery6 Battery7 Battery8

SOC of module 1 /%

SOC of module 2 /%
60 60

50 50

40 40

30 30
0 500 930 1000 1500 0 500 670 1000 1500
Time /s Time /s
SOC of module 3 /%

SOC of module 4 /%

60 60

50 50

40 40

30 30
0 500 710 1000 1500 0 500 1000 1070 1500
Time /s Time /s

Fig. 18. Equalization results based on FLC under NEDC.

Battery1 Battery2 Battery3 Battery4 Battery5 Battery6 Battery7 Battery8

10 10
0 0
−10 −10
10 10
0 0
−10 −10
10 10
0 0
−10 −10
10 10
Current /A
Current /A

0 0
−10 −10
10 10
0 0
−10 −10
10 10
0 0
−10 −10
10 10
0 0
−10 −10
10 10
0 0
−10 −10
0 500 1000 1200 1500 0 500 930 1000 1500
Time /s
Time /s
(a)
(b)

Fig. 19. Equalization current profiles of module one for (a) mean-difference algorithm and (b) FLC under NEDC.

time of module one in Fig.17 and Fig.18. and the initial SOC standard deviation is 6.65. In order to
In this paper, SOC is the evaluation index of battery verify that the two-stage bidirectional equalization circuit can
inconsistency. The initial SOC of 32 cells is shown in Fig.20, better improve the inconsistency of cells, we compare the final

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This article has been accepted for publication in a future issue of this journal, but has not been fully edited. Content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI 10.1109/TIE.2018.2795578, IEEE
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS
60
SOC /%
40
20
0 0
0 5 10 15 20 25
Cell Number
Fig. 20. Initial SOC.
40
30
SOC /%
20
10
0 with energy transferring capacitor inductor is designed to
0 5 10 15 20 25
Cell Number
Fig. 21. Final SOC with one-stage bidirectional equalization circuit
under NEDC.
SOC standard deviation of one-stage bidirectional equalization
circuit and two-stage bidirectional equalization circuit. The
structure of one-stage bidirectional equalization circuit is the
same as the structure that is shown in Fig.1, and the circuit
is not modular structure but just 32 cells in series. The final
SOC with one-stage bidirectional equalization circuit and two-
stage bidirectional equalization circuit under NEDC working
condition are demonstrated in Fig.21 and Fig.22 respectively,
and the final SOC standard deviations are 1.17 and 0.13
respectively. The final SOC standard deviation based on FLC is
improved by 18.5% compared with mean-difference algorithm.
The two-stage bidirectional equalization circuit paves the way
for the battery equalization of hardware module.
In order to reduce the influence of NEDC working condition
for the analysis of energy efficiency, the battery equalization
without NEDC working condition is used for the analysis of
energy efficiency. In this case, the final current keep zero after
the battery equalization has completed. The energy efficiency
of battery equalization is defined as
∫∫
Vchr (i, t) · Ichr (i, t)didt
η = ∫∫ ∫∫
Vchr (i, t) · Ichr (i, t)didt + Vdis (i, t) · Idis (i, t)didt
(12)
where Vchr (i, t) and Vdis (i, t) are the voltage of the ith cell to
represent charging and discharging process at time t respec-
tively. Ichr (i, t) and Idis (i, t) are the charging and discharging
equalization current of the ith cell at time t respectively.
The energy efficiency for mean-difference algorithm and
FLC is calculated to 92.26% and 97.37%, respectively. And
the energy efficiency of FLC is improved by 5.54% compared
with mean-difference algorithm.
In a word, the experimental results show that the proposed
equalization scheme of two-stage bidirectional equalization
circuit based on FLC can optimizes the equalization time and
energy efficiency compared with the mean-difference algo-
rithm. In addition, the battery equalization by FLC makes a
significant contribution for battery inconsistency improvement.
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Transactions on Industrial Electronics
40
30
SOC /%
20
10
30 0 5 10 15 20 25 30
Cell Number
Fig. 22. Final SOC with two-stage bidirectional equalization circuit under
NEDC.
V. C ONCLUSION
This paper has presented a non-dissipative equalization
scheme based on FLC. The bidirectional equalization circuit
30
improve the inconsistency of series-connected Lithium-ion
batteries, and the scheme of cell to cell is chosen to complete
battery equalization. The two-stage bidirectional equalization
circuit improves the system facility and paves the way for
module-based equalization of hardware. The SOC-based e-
qualization is selected and accurate SOC estimation is im-
plemented by Extended Kalman Filter, which is important for
the implementation of battery equalization. The equalization
scheme utilizing FLC is designed to improve the equaliza-
tion efficiency. To validate the advantages of the scheme,
comparisons with mean-difference algorithm are carried out.
Simulation results show that the proposed scheme can improve
the inconsistence of battery, reduce energy consumption and
save equalization time under the same equalization conditions
compared with mean-difference algorithm.
The proposed method does not consider battery aging in
real-time application. In future, a new battery model consider-
ing battery aging will be built, and the relationship between the
number of cells in a module and equalization effect will be
studied. Then the proposed equalization method considering
battery aging will be experimentally validated. Finally the
proposed method will be implemented in electric vehicles.
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