1

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the Study

The life span of a battery mostly used by automobile drivers can be

maximized by avoiding over loading, overcharging, and inputting charge

current higher than battery manufacture’s rated value (Bangaru, at al,

2013). It was observed over time that most commercial battery charging

service centers in town (Enugu, Nigeria) that are patronized by automobile

drivers uses the conventional battery charger type that is built without an

automatic charging cut-off circuit to provide charging services to their

customers. The unavailability of this automatic charging cut-off circuit

causes the operator to constantly be on manual check to determine when

the connected battery is charged (Baker, 2014).

Irrespective of the discharge level of the battery received from customers,

the service center operator often connects the battery and allows it to

charge over night without monitoring. This frequent practice often leads to

overcharging of the connected battery. Secondly, in an attempt to deliver

quick service and satisfy the customer’s expected time of need, they

sometimes, adjust the charging setting of the charger to increase the

charging current so as to reduce the charging time in order to get the

 2

battery charged within a short time. This kind of practice shortens the life

span of the battery. However, these common problems had suggested the

development and construction of a 12V portable battery charger with built-

in automatic charging cut-off circuit in order to encourage domestic usage.

This would help automobile drivers to avoid charging problems associated

with commercial services centers (Bangaru, at al, 2013).

Some components like a protection fuse and current reverse prevention

diode were considered during development of this product to prevent

problems that may result from short circuit current and reverse current.

Considering, the compact shape of the battery charger, with very low

ventilation an extractor fan was incorporated to drive away hot air and

moisture that would be generated inside the charger compartment during

operation (Bangaru, at al, 2013).

1.2 Statement of the problem

A simple 12volts charger works by supplying a constant DC or pulsed DC

power source to a battery being charged. The simple charger does not alter

its output based on time or the charge on the battery. This simplicity means

that a simple charger is inexpensive. The circuit of a battery charger has the

ability to convert voltages from one form to another (usually AC to DC

voltages). This process is carried out through the use of some important
 3

components like: rectifiers, capacitor to filter and remove ripples from the

AC source and a voltage regulator (IC). However, this project is based on

the construction of a 24V/12volts simple battery charger with local

materials to reduce cost. The proposed project design works on 24V/12V

batteries. There is resistance connected in the battery charger to limit the

short circuit current.

1.3 Aim and Objectives of the study

The aim of this project work is to design, construct and demonstrate how a

simple 24V/12volts battery charger works.

The specifics objectives are as follows:

 To design a device that will recharge 24V/12v lead acid battery

when discharged.

 To design a device that has the ability to indicate charging process,

low battery and fully charge levels through LED indicators.

 To design and construct a battery charger that can be use to charge

any kind of 24V/12V rechargeable batteries including alkaline,

NiCad or lead acid batteries.

1.4 Significance of the study

A simple 24V/12volt battery charger is a simple circuit that comprises of

different component that are soldered together on a circuit board to give or

 4

produce a require function. Therefore, the importance of this project work

is to aid both technicians and students on how to construct a simple battery

charger circuit and how it works. It is hoped that after the construction of

this charger circuit, it will be kept on the laboratory to be used for battery

charging and for practicals and other academic functions.

1.5 Scope of the Study

This project work is limited to the construction and demonstration of a

simple battery charger of 24V/12volts. The circuit input voltage is 240volts

from the A.C supply mains which will be stepped down by a step-down

transformer to 12volts. The 12volts A.C is rectified through a bridge

rectifier and filtered through capacitor connected in parallel from the

positive terminal of the bridge rectifier. The output voltage is used to

charge a battery. The project is limited to 24V/12V batteries. It is not

advisable to use on rechargeable batteries outside 24V/12V.

1.6 Limitation of the Study

During the project work, the researcher encountered the following

problems which in one way or the other have prevented him from

completing the work at the usually time. These include: financial problems,

time factor and unavailability of material which the researcher have to

 5

move from far distance area in search of textbooks and other important

materials.

1.7 Relevance of the Study

a) It helps to prolong the lifespan of the battery

b) It minimizes damage of the battery and other components.

1.8 Report Organization

This project work is organized in the following order.

Chapter one: Chapter one is introduction to the research/project. This

chapter is all about the problems which the project intends to solve and the

means through which it can be solved. The relevance of the project, the

scope of the project and finally it’s limitations.

Chapter two: This chapter is the literature review. It reviews the relevant

works other researchers have done in the field of overhead protection and

the problems they are having in those researchers. It also reviews the

available technology through which the project can be realized and also the

characteristics of the components used.

Chapter three: This chapter deals with the methodology and design of the

system. The most important aspect of this chapter is the block diagram of

the system. The mathematical analysis was also carried out here to

determine the components on each block.

 6

Chapter four: This chapter is all about the system implementation and

results of texts carried out on the system. The bill of engineering

measurement and evaluation (BEME) was also carried out here.

Chapter five: Chapter five is the conclusion and recommendations. It

summarizes the research which was done, the result gotten.

 7

CHAPTER TWO

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1OVERVIEW OF THE PROPOSE SYSTEM

2.1.1 Charging System

In various installations, batteries are kept floating on the line and are so

connected that they are being charged when load demands are light and

automatically discharged during peak periods when load demands are

heavy or when the usual power supply fails is disconnected. In some other

installations, the battery is connected to the feeder circuit as and when

desired, allowed to discharge to a certain point, then removed and

recharged for further requirements (Doggett, 2014).

For batteries other than the floating and system governed type, following

twp general methods (though there are some variations of these) are

employed (David and Thomas, 2010).

i. The constant current system

ii. The constant voltage system

2.1.2 Voltage Regulators

The voltage of a battery varies over a considerable range while under

discharge. It is necessary to find some means to control the battery voltage

 8

up to the end so as to confine variations within reasonable limits. These

limit being supplied by the battery.

2.1.3 Battery Monitoring

It is useful to know the state of charge of a battery since charging a battery

continually when they are already charged as this would degrade the

batteries (James and John, 2003).

a. Terminal Voltage Monitoring

The solid-state voltmeter described in the article/project allows continuous

monitoring of the battery voltage so that incipient failure can be spotted at

an early stage. The circuit will also indicate any fault in the car voltage

regulator which may lead to overcharging and damage to the battery.

Battery voltage can of course be measured using a conventional moving

coil voltmeter. However, as only the voltage range from about 9 to 15v is

of interest only the top third of the scale of a 15v meter would be used,

unless a suppressed zero facility was added. Moving coil meters are also

fairly delicate mechanically.

 9

2.2 REVIEW OF AVAILABLE TECHNOLOGY

2.2.1 BATTERY CHARGE

A battery charger is an electrical device employed in charging batteries that

are usually charged by battery charges are the storage batteries also known

as “accumulators”.

The charger is made up of various electrical and electronics component

which for the purpose of charging are group into your basic unit, they are

(Power, 2014):

The power supply units

The smoothing circuits

The regulating unit and

Regulated D.C charging units

A Battery charger comes in various designs and voltage.  The choice of a

particular and of charger that depends largely in Ah size of battery or

batteries which charge the mini battery charger could be used to charge

batteries whose voltage ranges from 6 – 12 volts.  The bigger battery

changes are for batteries with voltage ranging from 12 – 48 volts.  These

are the heavy duty batteries.

The battery charge is built in such a way that it delivers a constant value of

d.c current into the battery it is charging in the opposite direction from
 10

which current flows on the batteries during discharge one cannot

successfully design a battery charge without a fundamental understanding

of the accumulator because it also makes up the operation (Vijayasekaran,

et al, 2009).

2.2.2. Charger Types

2.2.2.1. Unregulated Transformer-Based Charger

These are the absolute cheapest chargers around. They consist of a wall

mount transformer and a diode. The transformer is designed to deliver 13

to 14 volts over a reasonable current range. The biggest problem with this

approach is that when the current tapers off, the voltage raises to 15, 16, 17,

even 18 volts. At these high voltages electrolysis of the water in the battery

starts in. These must not be left to trickle or float charge a battery, they

must be disconnected when the battery is fully charged. This is not a

problem with flooded batteries as long as you check the water periodically

and refresh it. Sealed lead acid batteries can recycle the generated gasses as

long as they are being overcharged at less than C/3. However, leaving the

battery to be overcharged even at C/10 will corrode the plates if left on for

weeks at a time. The transformer is so designed as to limit the current while

the battery is in absorption mode. As the battery voltage rises the current

decreases to top off the battery. Because the transformer is used to control
 11

the current and voltage these chargers are typically heavy and get hot

(Jackey, 2007).

2.2.2.2. Taper chargers

Another cheap way to charge a sealed lead acid battery battery is called a

taper charge.

Either constant voltage or constant current is applied to the battery through

a combination of transformer, diode, and resistance. The unregulated

chargers mentioned above are taper chargers. A better, and not very

expensive, alternative is a regulated taper charger. These do not let the

voltage climb higher than the trickle charge voltage, so they can be also be

used to maintain a battery. They won't damage the battery if left on charge

too long, and they do not change their charging characteristics if the line

voltage should change (Jackey, 2007).

Regulated taper chargers are very useful when you need a 12V or 24V

battery backup.

A taper charger in parallel with the battery, in parallel with the load makes

an effective battery back-up. You should take care to ensure that the taper

charger is designed to give continuous current equal to the load plus some

left over for battery charging. It is also important that the current limit of
 12

the taper charger is the voltage-cut-back method, and not the hiccough

method or other PWM methods.

There are two ways to make a regulated charger. The first is to use a

transformer and a simple voltage regulation circuit. This has the

disadvantages of weight and heat, but it is still inexpensive. The second

uses a modern switching power supply in a wall mount or desk mount

package. These low power high frequency switchers are surprisingly cheap,

efficient, and small. They are rapidly taking over the overnight charging

requirement in consumer equipment (Ali and John, 2010).

2.2.2.3. Constant current chargers

A more sophisticated and not much more expensive charger uses an

electric circuit to control the charging current. This method is useful for

recovering batteries that have suffered from extensive storage without

charging, but is capable of overcharging a battery if there is not some

voltage limiting function, usually from the transformer. For this reason

these chargers are limited to slow charging (Ali and John, 2010).

2.2.2.4. Constant Voltage Chargers (Taper plus current limit)

A circuit that is set for the maximum allowable charge voltage, but has a

current limit to control the initial absorption current can produce a very
 13

nice charger. This type of charger can both charge at a reasonable rate and

maintain the battery at full charge without damage.

Not all constant voltage chargers are made equal, however, because the

maximum voltage is a function of temperature. A temperature compensated

charger is a little more expensive, and should be used where the

temperature varies significantly from room temperature (Ali and John,

2010).

2.2.3 Method of Charging the Lead Acid Battery

There are a few methods that are available or known to be able to charge a

lead acid battery but in this case, we are focusing the constant current-

constant voltage charging method where it uses a voltage based algorithm

that is the same with the lithium ion battery charging method too where a

usual charge time for a sealed lead acid battery can be up to 16 hours.

There is a faster way to charge the battery which is known as the fast

battery charging method where it uses a high current pulse that is pumped

into the battery at a faster rate with high capacity of current which will cut

down on the charging time but at the same time, if it is not under close

supervision, it might damage the battery due to its high current pumping

into the battery. The constant current-constant voltage charging method

will be explained and further discussed in 3 sections which is the constant

 14

current charge, constant voltage (topping charge) and the float (trickle

charge) (Andreas and Henrik, 2012).

2.2.3.1 Constant Current Charging

This constant current charging is the first phase of the recharging of the

batteries where it usually takes up 50% of the charging period. Usually a

battery that has just been discharge have a voltage of 11.50V

approximately and when it undergoes the charging process, this constant

current charging will ensure that the voltage of the battery rises to a voltage

that is determined by the characteristics of the battery itself which will be

approximately 13V with a relatively uniform current flow charging the

battery.

This helps to eliminate the imbalances of cells and batteries that are

connected in series which is the most appropriate for cyclic operation

where a battery is required to obtain a full charge overnight. In this phase,

the battery will be charged up to 70% approximately in the range of 4-7

hours and the other 30% is charged using the trickle charging method. The

change of phase from the constant current charging to the next phase

occurs when the battery reaches its voltage limit. This method is widely

used for most battery chargers. (Anu, 2007).

 15

2.2.3.2 Topping (Constant) Charging

This charging takes place when the lead acid battery voltage increases and

stays constant at its voltage limit which will be in the range of 12V to 13V.

For every standard lead acid battery, the approximate pre-determined

battery is 12.6V. Once it reaches its saturated voltage, the current that is

applied into the battery will start to decrease where it leads to a full charge

condition once it reaches 3% of the rated current. This process is mainly to

ensure that the battery cells remains at the same voltage in the battery pack.

During the charging and discharging process, each cell in the lead acid

battery might react differently to other cells that are in the battery due to

certain factors such as the quantity of charge in each cell is different.

(Ahmad et al, 2013). . Hence during the charging process, this topping

charge will help to give a slight overcharge to bring the other cells up to

full charge. Topping charge should be applied every six months to avoid

voltage drop below 2.10V per cell. (Anu, 2007).

The stronger cells in the battery will absorb the overcharge through the

dissipation of heat from the boiling and gassing while the weaker cells will

absorb the current from the overcharge until it is sufficient. This topping

charge period should be long enough to help pull the cells in the battery up

to a fully charged condition.

 16

This topping charge is also used to complete the process of fast charging

where it is left to charge for at least 30 minutes with a low current. If the

battery is used regularly, it will tend to have high leakage current which

means when it is left on shelf, the process of self discharging happens

rapidly. This high rate of leakage might not attain this low saturation

current.

A precautionary step should be taken to ensure that overcharging doesn’t

take place for too long of a time because once the lead acid battery is being

overcharged, the electrochemical process will cause it to heat up and boil.

The phenomenon of hydrogen gas been let off at the negative cathode plate

and oxygen gas being let off at the positive anode takes place due to any

charging current beyond that required to liberate the small amount of

sulphate radicals from the plates, ionizes the water in the electrolyte.

Hence, triggering the process of electrolysis where it separates the water

into hydrogen and oxygen gas. While this process occurs to form water

vapour, the presence of flammable and potentially explosive hydrogen gas

will encourage charging to be done in a well ventilated area. If this is not

conducted properly, it will result in a battery explosion due to the hydrogen

gas that is being released by the boiling acid. This brings more bad news

for sealed lead acid battery where it have a higher chance of an explosion
 17

to happen as it has nowhere for the gas to exit hence indirectly building up

the pressure in the case leading to an explosion. On the other hand, at low

temperature, the electrolyte might freeze up, affecting the performance of

the battery. The safe operating temperature for a battery pack is usually 80

Fahrenheit or 26.37 degree Celsius (Anu, 2007).

2.2.3.3 Float (Trickle) Charge

The float charging is also known as the trickle charging method where its

definition is a charging current that can be applied to the battery without

damaging it or simply defined as slow charge. This process keeps the

voltage at a constant where else the current will be operating at a very low

level. The float charge compensates for the self discharging process that

happens when the battery is put on shelf where it will self discharge at a

rate of 2% - 3% every month. Aging batteries will be an issue when the

float charge is set due to the different age condition that each of the cells

have. This can be seen where a float current that is too high for the aging

cell will starve the stronger cells in the same battery causing sulfation due

to undercharging. The figure below shows the characteristics of the

constant current constant voltage charging (Buchmann, 2014).

 18

Figure 2.1: Constant-Current Constant-Voltage Charging Method

(Source: Baker, 2014)
 19

2.2.3.4 State of Charge (SOC)

To further understand the state of charge, or also known in short as SOC,

there are also other battery parameters that we have to look into such as the

discharge rate, depth of discharge and also state of discharge or known as

SOD. First, the discharge rate can be defined as the current at which a

battery is discharged and can be expressed as Q/h rate where Q is the

battery capacity and h is known as the discharge time in terms of hours.

The depth of discharge is known as the percentage of battery capacity

(rated capacity) to which a battery is discharged. If the withdrawal of at

least 80% of the battery (rated) capacity is known as the deep discharge

state. (Buchmann, 2014). Hence this leads to the state of charge where it is

closely related to this two terms where SOC is defined as the present

capacity of a battery where it is the amount of capacity that remains after

discharging from a top-of-charge condition. It is known that every cell have

a different range of SOC hence leading to a performance difference among

the batteries in the pack. This helps to balance up the charging and

discharging in order to maximize the battery pack lifespan and the energy

efficiency. This means, with the combination of battery voltage, internal

resistance, and the amount of sulphuric acid combined with the plates at

any one time are the indicators of how much energy is in the battery for a
 20

given time. It is understood that the SOC is given as a percentage of its

fully charged value, for example, if it is at 75% means that the amount of

battery capacity is available at 75% and shows that 25% has been used. In a

battery, the rate of which the energy is drawn affects the overall amount of

energy available from the battery. Give example, if a 100Ah battery is rated

at 10 hour rate, that means that at over 10 hour, there are 100Ah available

or in other words, the load can draw up to 10A per hour up to 10 hours

where 10A X 10H = 100Ah. A standard 12V lead acid battery have a usual

100% state of charge that shows that it’s fully charged with a voltage

reading of 12.6V on average and on the other hand, when that state of

charge is at 0%, the voltage reading is usually average at 11.8V. Once

again, this may differ from different lead acid batteries due to its own

battery characteristics as mentioned earlier.

The relationship between the state of charge with the battery voltage can be

seen in the figure below. (Moubayed et al, 2008).

 21

Figure 2.2: Voltage vs State of Charge (12V Battery) (Source: Baker,

2014)

The charging and discharging current in a lead acid battery is measured in

C-rate where most battery are usually set to have a charging and

discharging current characteristics of 1C. For example, if the C-rate is set

to discharge at 1C (also known as one hour discharge) on a 500mAh

battery, it will discharge 500mAh in a period of an hour. Instead, if the C-

rate is set at 2C, the battery of 500mAh will provide an output of 1000mAh

for a shorter period of time at an approximation of 30 minutes. Based on

 22

the research done, the standardized C-rate of the battery is at 0.05 (20 hour

discharge). At this slow discharging rate, a 100% capacity (ability to

provide current from the battery for 20 hours in this case) is almost

impossible. Usually a capacity of a lead acid battery is measured using a

battery analyzer where it is displayed in a percentage rating. For example, a

500mAh battery provides current for an hour at 1C meaning that it has a

100% capacity but a battery has 50% capacity when the battery only

supplies current at a time period of 30 minutes. To summarize, if the

battery is set to discharge at a lower C-rate, we will obtain a longer time

period for the battery to discharge (higher capacity). Hence with high C-

rate, the capacity of the battery will deteriorate sharply (Moubayed et al,

2008).

The usual traditional way to measure the state of charge is through

hydrometer where it measures the specific gravity of the electrolyte and

with a little calculation, we can obtain the state of charge of the particular

battery. As time passes, it is known that voltage can also be used to

determine the battery state of charge with a few calculations. The voltage

measurement is a better option preferred to than the hydrometer is because

the hydrometer can cause inaccuracy in reading and it contaminates the

battery cell. Besides that, we cannot use the hydrometer for this project is
 23

because the battery that is provided is sealed lead acid batteries. The figure

below shows the usage of a hydrometer.

Figure 2.3: Hydrometer (source: James and John, 2003)

There are a few things that are needed to be avoided to ensure that the state

of charge does not drop critically for determining its battery efficiency.

When the batteries are being charged and discharged, it indirectly affects

their state of charge which makes it as a critical factor. To prevent this

from happening, try to avoid placing continuous heavy loads on the battery

anywhere in their state of charge cycle to avoid fast draining of its battery

charge. A battery pack that delivers 100% of its capacity when discharged

in 1 hour, for example, might deliver only 50% of its capacity when it is

forced to discharge in 20 minutes. When the state of charge is below 20%,

we must stop discharging the batteries to ensure that the battery life is not
 24

greatly reduced or destroyed due to the high rate discharging. Besides that,

make sure that heavy charging is done within 20% to 90% of the state of

charge range due to the ability of the lead acid battery to store energy when

it is almost full or nearly empty. In the 20% - 90% range, C/10 (divide the

capacity by 10) delivers the fastest rate at which it is efficient to charge a

lead acid battery. In order to obtain the accurate state of charge reading, the

battery must rest for a few hours ( 2-6 hours or 24 for optimum accuracy)

due to the surface charge where if the plates are damaged or sulphated, the

battery might give the appearance of being fully charged but instead its

capacity is much lesser than that. When measuring the state of charge, we

must ensure that the temperature of the room or its surrounding must be

almost constant because if the surrounding temperature is too warm, the

chemical reactions within the battery will be accelerated and the battery life

might be shortened and if the battery gets too cold, the chemical reactions

tend to slow down, reducing the battery output. (Moubayed et al, 2008).

This makes the battery temperature dependent where the available capacity

and maximum current both drops at low temperature and increases at

higher temperatures. The possibility of freezing is also there for a fully

discharged battery at temperatures below zero due to the slowing down of

the chemistry process in the battery. Hence in this case, the charging
 25

voltage needs to be increased when the temperature falls to ensure that the

battery continues to receive charge but on the other hand, it is necessary to

provide an upper limit on this raised voltage to ensure that the load

equipment that is connected to the battery during the charging process is

doesn’t operate out of its specified range (Jackey, 2007). Besides that heat

stagnation can also be a problem where it causes thermal runaway where it

is defined as a critical condition arising during constant voltage charging

process where it is accelerated by increased temperature of the battery in

turn releasing energy that further increases the temperature and in the end,

it leads to the destruction of the battery. (Jackey, 2007).

2.2.4 Battery Construction

Figure 2.4: Standard Single Cell Lead Acid Battery (source: James and

John, 2003)

A standard lead acid battery consists of several single cells connected in

series where each cell produces approximately 2V and usually a 12V

battery have six single cells in series which produces a battery that is fully
 26

charge with an output of 12.3V to 12.8V as shown in the figure below. In

the battery, it has two lead plates which are the positive plate that is

covered with a paste of lead dioxide and a negative plate that is made of

sponge lead. There is an insulating material that separates both plates and

the plates will be enclosed in a plastic battery case which is submersed in

water and sulphuric acid which is the electrolyte liquid for the battery as

shown in the figure above. Lead acid cells in the battery will produce

voltage when it receives a charging voltage of 2.1V and above from a

battery charger where it doesn’t generate voltage by itself but they are

capable to store a charge from another source. Lead acid battery is known

to be storage batteries for this as they works as a charge storing device. The

amount of charge a lead acid battery can store is depending on the size of

the battery plates and the amount of electrolyte. The unit that is used to

measure the capacity of the battery is known as Ampere-Hour (Ah). For

example, if a battery has 75Ah means it has the capability to discharge 75A

for one hour or 1A for 75 hours. The total capacity can be increase by

connecting a few lead acid batteries in parallel (Jackey, 2007).

 27

Figure 2.5: Standard Lead Acid Battery (source: James and John, 2003)

In order to discharge the battery, a load (light bulb) is used to drain the

battery and when it is connected, the chemical reaction between the

sulphuric acid and lead plates will produce electricity to the light bulb. As

electricity is supplied to power up the light bulb, internally, the sulphation

process takes place where lead sulphate starts to coat both the positive and

negative plates where this process usually occurs during a discharge cycle.

It will become worst when the discharging process is prolonged where the

lead sulphate coats more and more of the plates causing the voltage of the

battery to drop from its original fully charged state as seen in the figure

below. (Progressive Dynamics Inc, 2006)

 28

Figure 2.6: Sulphation (source: James and John, 2003)

If a battery is being discharged below 10.5V, it will damage the battery and

also decrease its capacity. As the lead sulphate starts to coat most of the

battery plates, it must not be left discharged for a prolonged period of time

due to the hardening of the lead sulphate where initially lead sulphate is a

soft material that is able to be converted back into lead and sulphuric acid.

This will further cause the formation of hard crystals which cripple the

ability of the battery to charge if we were to use a standard fixed voltage

battery charger (James and John, 2003).

2.3 Review of Related Work

Pesaran et al. introduced the thermal performance of electric car battery

modules and packs. With the purpose of precisely design the thermal

management system for electric cars, so thermal analysis should be

conducted. Therefore, to get the estimate of the thermal performance, the

heat transfer principles and finite element analysis software have been used
 29

Ahmad A Pesaran et al. also explained about the systematic approach in

order to design and analyze the thermal management inside the battery

pack. Thus the thermal management system is essential for maintaining and

controlling the electric car battery pack temperature. They defined that the

battery pack must be compatible with all modules so as to operate in the

preferred temperature range. Besides, the uneven temperature distribution

between the modules should be decreased towards minimizing the

electrical imbalance and this result in improving battery performance and

life cycle.

Tang et al. introduced an innovative method to manufacture lithium-ion

polymer battery. In their research, simple process to coat the electrodes

with micro porous composite polymer films have been conducted. Hence,

the improved results that the graphite is protected by the composite

polymer film from reacting with Mn2+ dissolved from the spinel LiMn 2O4

cathode leads to the excellent performance of the NG anode.

Okamoto et al. worked on an implantable battery system and assessment of

temperature rise of lithium ion battery. They figured out that lithium-ion

battery and lithium-ion polymer battery have the same heat characteristics.

Yet the internal resistance of the lithium ion battery is much larger. They

defined that the lithium-ion polymer battery has the capability to keep
 30

cooler itself due to higher specific heat and lower internal resistance.

Therefore, they concluded that lithium-ion polymer battery is more suitable

for use in the implantable battery system because it has a benefit of

temperature rise during operation (James and John, 2003).

Iwahori et al. developed the solid-state battery by using carbon material as

the anode for the lithium-ion polymer battery technology in Lithium

Battery Energy Storage Technology Reaserch Association (LIBES)

research (James and John, 2003). Cycle life and energy density of the

battery technology have been improved in order to use it in electric car.

Sandy Thomas reported that the battery electric cars are used to labelled

―green‖. This technology is to minimize the greenhouse gas and oil

consumption from the transportation sector. Also, they found the higher

specific power battery is required to improve and replace larger cars with a

long driving capacity to make substantial reductions in greenhouse gas and

oil consumption. Hence, they specified hydrogen and electricity can be

made from lower carbon sources to further reduce the greenhouse gas in

the future.

Ritchie and Howard found that the battery safety and battery cost are the

main important factors in the usage of lithium-ion polymer battery in larger

sizes, such as for electric cars. However, the lithium-ion polymer

 31

rechargeable battery has been developed for the telecommunication

applications.

Pesaran et al. increased their attention to battery thermal management.

They found that the performance and life of battery are affected by

temperature. They described that thermal control is critical to ensure the

battery performance and life. They also believed that with designing a good

module and cell (James and John, 2003) can help them to improve the good

thermal performance.
 32

CHAPTER THREE

METHODOLOGY

This is a detailed information gardered during practical at the lab.it entails

the method used in the implementation of the 12/24v car battery charger.

MATERIALS USED

1. 555 IC (Integrated circuit) This is the time IC in the circuit.

2. IRF 3205 MOSFET (metallic oxides semiconductor field effect

transistor)

3. 30AMP/45V signal diode

4. 5808 regulator

5. Variable resistor

6. Electrolyte capacitor

7. Fixed resistor

8. Paper capacitor

9. BC547 transistor

10. 24V transformer

11. Heat sink

12. Diode

13. LED

14. Switch
 33

1. IC (555): It is called a micro chip; the integrated circuit is a

semiconductor device where loads of resistors, capacitors and

transistors are fabricated. It can function as oscillator,

microprocessor, amplifier and timer.

2. IRF 3205 MOSFET (metallic oxide semiconductor field effect

transistor): this is a unipoler semiconductor material with PN

junction charge carrier. It is used for voltage and current

amplification.

3. Signal diode: the semiconductor signal diode is a small non-linear

semiconductor device generally used in electronic circuit, where

 34

small current or high frequency are involved such as in radio,

Television and digital logic gate circuit.

4. 5808 Regulator: It is a semiconductor material with input, output

and ground terminal which is used to maintain and regulate a certain

amount of voltage entering in a terminal.

5. Variable resistor: This is an electrical component that is used to

vary the flow of current in a circuit. He current flow through a

resistor is directly proportional to the voltage, the unit is in ohm

I = V/R.
 35

6. Electrolyte capacitor: A capacitor is a two terminal passive

component which is made from two conductive plates with an

insulator between them. The main function of a capacitor is that it

stores electrical energy when an electrical charge is forced unto the

terminal from a power source. It maintains the charge even after

getting disconnected from the power source. A capacitor can also

used as a filter to allow AC signals and block DC signals.

 36

7. BC547 transistor: the transistor is an electronic device which

consists of three terminals made of semiconductor material which

controls the flow of voltage or current and act as a switch to

electronic signals. The BC547 is a unipoller transistor with two

charge carrier PNP (Positive negative positive) i.e. base, collector,

emitter where the base terminal is responsible for activating the

transistor emitter is negative lead and collector terminal.

8. 24V volts transformer: is an electrical device which consists of two

coils of copper wire that are linked by iron core. Its increase (steps

up) the voltage or decrease the (step down) AC voltage. The

transformer works on the principle of faradays law of

electromagnetic induction.
 37

9. Heat sink: this is an electronic device made of aluminum which is

used to absorb thermal emission of heat in a semiconductor material.

10. Switch: it is used to break the circuit, interrupting the current and to

supply the current from one conductor to another.

 38

11. Diode: It is a device made from semiconductor material that allow

the flow current in one direction and blocks the current which tries to

go against the flow in a circuit.

12. LED: (Light emitting diode): The Led is the alternative of diode,

when current is applied to a LED it emit light at a particular

frequency. LED is used in numerous applications like key board,

 39

hard disk, TV remote control and this device are very useful as

indicators in computers as well as battery operated electronics

transistors.

13.

HOW THE BATTERY CHARGER WORK

When the car battery charger is energized in AC current, the circuit

will rise to its maximum cut-off at 14.7v. But if the battery is inserted it

will release current, more current for fast charging.

As the battery voltage increases so do the current decreases until it

get to 14.7v. Then the battery will stop charging i.e. entering the trickle –

mode.

RESULT

As I finished designing my circuit, at first it smoked and my findings was

that I have over heated charging MOSFET while soldering it, due to this,
 40

my circuit didn’t work. There after I notice that there was thermal emission

of heat at the positive terminal of the battery. Later after I also notice that it

indicates full battery even went to battery inserted.

After then I replaced the damage MOSFET and change the battery terminal

supply cable to 4mm and then adjusted the charging variable resistor to

enable it charge pro zero voltage. And after which that I was able to active

a well constructed and rapid fast charging circuit.

METHOD OF DESIGN

we started by assembling the component and reading them all, to make sure

that there are no faulty components. we place the R 1 resistor into my

dotted vero-board and soldered it in star connection with the D 1 diode and

paper capacitor Cs at the same star point connection we soldered another

resistor with its end at the dran terminal to the IRF3205 unipoler

transistor. we then extended the gate terminal of the MOSFET to the

positive point in the power pack and the source terminal joined to ground.

Placing IC555 timer and joined the pin-1 to earth, pin-3 to 104 paper

capacitor, pin-4 joined with 360/6.5K ohm resistor in series joined with the

BC547 transistor. There after joined pin-4 with 104 ceramic capacitor

terminated to earth with pin-5 then pin-7 and pin-8 . At same pin-8 we

joined 7808 regulator carrying two 470UF electrolyte capacitor at input

 41

and output point terminal and the ground point of the regulator sent to

earth. At resistor RA the 1.5K resistor is joined with the output terminal of

the 8v regulator and the other end joined in series with a 10K and 1.8K

ohms resistor linked to GND.

While designing the power pack of the battery charger, I used a signal

diode joined positive to positive and negative to negative at which in P

junction I joined a 4700UF/50v capacitor to achieve high rectification and

filtetration of voltages after that I linked the positive and negative power

pack circuit to the main circuit board accordingly.

 42

REFERENCES

Ahmad Darabi1, Majid Hosseina, Hamid Gholami, Milad Khakzad, (2013).

“Modeling of lead acid battery bank in the energy storage system”,
International Journal of Emerging Tech-nology and Advanced
Engineering,Vol.3,No.3,pp 932-937,2013.

Ali Emadi, Mehrdad Ehsani, John M. Miller, (2010) “Vehicular Electric

Power System”, Special Indian Edition, New York: Marcel Dekker,
Inc, 2010, Print.
Andreas Nyman, Henrik Ekstrom, (2012). ''Modeling the Lithium-ion
Battery”, White Paper, Comsol, Intertek, pp 1-7, 2012.
Anu Maria, (2007). "Introduction to Modeling and Simulation", Proceeding
of the 29th confe-rence on winter simulation, IEEE Computer
Society Washington, DC, USA, pp 7-13, 2007.
Bangaru, S., Alugonda, R.; Palacharla, P., (2013). "Modeling and
simulation of lithium-ion battery with hysteresis for industrial
applications," Energy Efficient Technologies for Sustainability
(ICEETS), 2013 International Conference on , vol., no., pp.771-775,
2013.
Baker, David R. (2014). "Hyatt puts Tesla roadster recharging stations in 3
hotels." SFGate. August 30, 2007,Web,11 Jun 2014,online.

Buchmann, Isidor. (2014). "What's the best battery?" Battery University.

November 2006, Web,11 Jun 2014,online.
David Linden, Thomas B. Reddy, (2010). “Handbook of Batteries‟, Third
Edition, New York: McGraw-Hill, 2010, web, 14 Jan 2013, online.

Doggett, Scott. (2014). "Renault Nissan Alliance Getting Recharging

Stations in Place for an EV World." Green Car Advisor. July 10,
2008, Web,20 Jul 2014,online.

Jackey, R., (2007). "A Simple, Effective Lead-Acid Battery Modeling

Process for Electrical System Component Selection," SAE Technical
Paper 2007-01-0778, 2007.
 43

James Larmine, John Lowry, (2003). “Electric Vehicle Technology

Explained”, First Edition, England: John Wiley&Sons, Ltd, 2003,
Print.

Moubayed N., J. Kouta , A. El-Ali , H. Dernayka and R. Outbib (2008).

"Parameter identifica-tion of the lead-acid battery model", Proc.
IEEE PVSC, pp.1 -6 2008.

Power J.D., (2014) Third-Party Automotive Website Evaluation Study,

January 2014.
Vijayasekaran B., Ravi N. M., Venkatsailanathan R., and Venkat R. S.,
(2009). Journal of the Electrochemical Society Vol.156, No.11, pp
A854-A862, 2009.