Model Development and Simulations of 12V Dual Batteries towards Design Optimization of Microhybrid Vehicles

The microhybrid electric vehicle (MHEV) has increasingly received attention since it holds promise for significant increases in fuel economy vs. traditional gasoline vehicles at a lower price point than hybrid vehicles. Passive parallel connection of the traditional 12V lead acid battery and a high power lithium ion battery has been identified as a potential architecture that will facilitate fuel economy improvements with minimal changes to the electrical network. Enabling a passive dual-battery connection requires a design match between the two batteries, including characteristics such as battery size and resistance, so that the performance can be optimized. In this work we have developed a hybrid model that couples electrochemical model of lithium ion battery (NMC-Graphite as an example) and an equivalent circuit model of lead acid battery in order to study the behavior of 12V dual-battery microhybrid architectures. We have analyzed variables that may affect the battery performance such as battery size, cutoff voltage, operating voltage and system resistance. The New European Driving Cycle (NEDC) is used to examine the 12V dual-battery architecture in order to demonstrate the tradeoffs between design factors considered in this work.