Field Results of Battery Management Technology Integration into a Vehicle Application (inGEN®)

This paper presents advanced battery monitoring technology developed for integration into the vehicle system to enable true battery power diagnostics and management. As an update of SAE paper 2001-01-2715 from the 2001 SAE Truck and Bus Conferencei, the paper examines battery parameters measured and the diagnostics produced to determine the health, charge condition and deliverable power of the battery. Diagnostics, whose methodology to accurately calculate true state-of-charge (SOC) and state-of-health (SOH) for SLI lead-acid batteries was previously reported, are further explored for application with military high capacity VRLA batteries, similar in cell type to batteries anticipated to be deployed in 42 volt architectures. Furthermore, the system and technology is examined in dynamic field-testing of actual drive cycle data acquired in vehicle under hood environments. Finally, the paper explores how improved battery data and diagnostics can lead to improved electrical system and vehicle performance.