Model-based Hardware-in the-Loop Testing of Battery Management System 2022-28-0388

The accelerated growth of Electric Vehicles (EV) latterly demands effective energy storage systems, highly reliable electronics, and controllers. Li-ion batteries are prevalently used in EVs due to their high energy density, low self-discharge, better temperature performance, and efficiency. Nevertheless, the abuse of these has a severe impact and can lead to dangerous circumstances, posing a threat to the vehicle and the consumer as well. A Battery management system (BMS) is a set of electronic components with functions that play a significant role in monitoring, controlling, and safeguarding the battery pack against critical parameters, thus extending the lifespan of the battery. Due to the paramount importance of this embedded system, testing of the BMS prior to usage in the vehicle is indispensable. Testing of BMS in an assembled condition with the battery pack is desirable as it ensures examination closer to real world conditions. However, the challenge of testing critical scenarios is of high risk, significant cost and time demanding a comprehensive testing. Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL) testing is a powerful platform that simulates an actual working environment for the Device Under Test (DUT) by providing all the necessary input signals. As the entire system contributes to the vehicle attributes, signal level HIL testing of BMS is highly dependable, cost-effective, and safer, especially for operation beyond normal constraints and fault insertion examinations. A scalable Li-ion battery model built using MATLAB/Simulink is converted to C code and executed by the Real-time Operating System (RTOS) to exactly reflect the battery and the inputs are applied at signal level by the HIL simulator to examine the behavior of the BMS under different conditions. In this paper, the capabilities of model-based Hardware-in-Loop testing of BMS at the signal level to optimize control and ensure functional reliability of the BMS are discussed. The cell simulator is used to replicate battery over regular power supply as it allows flow of current in both the directions and the application of inputs at signal level makes testing critical scenarios feasible.