Modeling and Simulating a Battery for an Electric Vehicle Based on Modelica

Abstract

Battery is the key technology to the development of electric vehicles, and most battery models are based on the electric vehicle simulation. In order to accurately study the performance of LiFePO 4 batteries, an improved equivalent circuit model was established by analyzing the dynamic characteristics and contrasting different-order models of the battery. Compared to the traditional model, the impact of hysteresis voltage was considered, and the third-order resistance–capacitance (RC) network was introduced to better simulate internal battery polarization. The electromotive force, resistance, capacitance and other parameters were calibrated through battery charge and discharge experiments. This model was built by using Modelica, a modeling language for object-oriented multi-domain physical systems. MWorks was used to implement the cycle conditions and vehicle simulation. The results show that the third-order RC battery model with hysteretic voltage well reflects the dynamics of a LiFePO 4 battery. The difference between the simulated and measured voltages is small, with a maximum error of 1.78%, average error of 0.23%. The validity and feasibility of the model are verified. It can be used in unified modeling and simulation of subsequent multi-domain systems of electric vehicles.