Battery Management System:

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BMS Functional Requirements
While each application and battery chemistry has specific requirements, most
applications have the following common set of BMS functional requirements:
Cell ProtectionSafety is the primary requirement of a BMS. This includes
protecting the cells from operating outside of manufacturer-recommended
conditions, as well as protecting the rest of the system from the battery in the event
of cell failures.
Cell protection encompasses the following BMS elements:
Data acquisition of cell voltages, temperatures, and current
Data analysis to determine state of charge and state of health of the battery pack
Communication of warnings and error conditions detected in the battery pack
Control of external components to maintain cells within manufacturer recommended
conditions (e.g. fans, heaters), control of charger/inverter to
delivery energy to the pack during charging or to the load during discharging,
and control of components to isolate the battery pack in the event of a cell
failure (contactors)
Charge and discharge control
Inappropriate charging is the leading source of battery damage
The BMS must manage the rate of charging to maintain cells within
manufacturer recommendations. For multi-cell battery chains, this includes cell
balancing.
Cell balancing provides a way to compensate for weaker cells by equalizing
the charge on all cells in the battery pack to extend battery life. Without cell
balancing, weaker cells can be over-stressed on each charge/discharge cycle
causing premature failure of the battery.
The BMS needs to determine the state of charge (SOC) of the battery to allow it
to control the rate of charging and discharging.

 SOC and state of healthDetermination of the SOC and state of health (SOH) of the
battery and/or the individual cells in the battery pack
The BMS needs to determine the SOC in order to report the capacity left in the
battery typically called the gas gauge. SOC is also needed to control battery
charging and discharging
SOC determination can be obtained using the following methods:
Measure cell voltage to calculate SOC. This can work well for battery
chemistries such as Lead-Acid, for which voltage and capacity are fairly
linearly related, but ineffective for other battery chemistries, such as
Lithium-Ion, for which voltage is mostly flat over the battery capacity,
except at the extremes, where it is very non-linear.
Coulomb counting. Integral over time of the current being delivered (or
received) by the battery.
The available capacity of a battery depends on cell chemistry, charging times
and discharge rates, as well as cell age and temperature. All of these factors
need to be considered in the calculation of the SOC.
SOH is a figure of merit that represents the health of the battery as compared
with a new battery. It includes factors such as voltage, charge capacitance,
internal resistance, and self-discharge rate.
1 There are no standards for calculating SOH. Measurements and
calculations to determine SOH are battery chemistry and application
specific
History
The BMS needs to keep track of the age of the battery (the number of
charge/discharge cycles), and must log when batteries are out of range of
manufacturer-recommended operating conditions.
Minimum/maximum voltage, temperature, and maximum charge and
discharge currents are important parameters to track
History can include cell serial numbers and manufacturing dates for
traceability

 Communication
Most applications require the BMS to communicate with external components
including a power inverter/charger, environmental control units (e.g. fans,
heaters), and system controllers.
Communication interfaces provides user access to BMS state and diagnostics
information, as well as supports modifications of control parameters

BMS Architectures
There are a number of different BMS architectures depending on the number of cells
in the system and the needs of the application. These architectures can be divided into
three main categories.
Centralized BMS Architecture
In the centralized BMS architecture, a single controller board is responsible for
monitoring and controlling all the cells in the battery pack. Voltage levels for all cells
in the battery along with temperature sensors distributed throughout the battery are
all routed to the controller board, usually via a large number of wiring harnesses. The
centralized BMS architecture is typically the most economical, but does not scale well,
and requires extensive wiring from all the cells to the controller board. The centralized
BMS architecture is well suited to battery packs with a small number of cells.
Distributed BMS Architecture
In the Distributed BMS architecture, each cell in the battery has a slave board that
measures and controls an individual cell. Slave boards are interconnected via a serial
network and controlled by a master control board. A distributed BMS architecture is
typically much easier to install than a centralized one. Each cell only has a pair of
voltage signals and a temperature sensor to connect, and serial interface cables in and
out. For battery packs with a large number of cells, the cost of a distributed system can
be significantly higher than a centralized system.
Modular BMS Architecture
In the modular BMS architecture, each slave board monitors and controls a group of
cells. A master control board interfaces with the slave boards via serial interfaces to

control the functionality of the system. The modular BMS architecture provides a
trade-off between the benefits and short-comings of centralized and distributed
architectures. Figure 1 shows the topology of the modular BMS architecture.

IMAGE 1

In addition to the master-slave modular BMS architecture, there is also a peer-to-peer

modular BMS architecture. In the Peer-to-Peer modular BMS architecture, there is no
master board, and each peer board monitors and controls its own set of battery cells
and communicates with other peer boards in the system. This architecture divides the
software tasks amongst the peer boards, but does require additional software for
communication and coordination among peers.
In addition to master-slave or peer-to-peer architectures, there are a number of serial
network topologies that fall under the modular architecture category.
Figure 2 shows three different serial interface networks that may be used to
interconnect the master control board and the slave boards