Testing Pulsed Current Conditioning to Benefit Vehicle Battery Performance

Calorimetric testing of pulsed power conditioning, as an influence on a battery's electrochemical transfer efficiency, is presented. The experiment used two 300 AH (ampere-hour) electric shuttle bus batteries; alternately charging and discharging at 8 to 14 kW with two charge and three discharge modes. The batteries were thermally insulated and monitored to analyze energy balance differences. The test setup, results, and analyses are reported. While slight trends were seen, improved transfer efficiencies due to pulsed currents could not be confirmed. Benefits under conditions of much higher transfer rates or for battery life cycle improvements are considered but were not tested.