CN111384732A - Method for charging a battery of a vehicle, battery charging device and vehicle - Google Patents

The present disclosure provides a method for charging a battery of a vehicle, comprising determining at least one operating parameter of the battery; determining a charging voltage for the battery based on the determined at least one operating parameter; and charging the battery based on the determined charging voltage. In this way, the battery can be in an optimal state during charging, thereby improving the service life of the battery. The present disclosure also provides a battery charging apparatus, a computer readable medium, and a vehicle including the battery charging apparatus.

Method for charging a battery of a vehicle, battery charging device and vehicle

Technical Field

Embodiments of the present disclosure relate generally to energy management, and more particularly, to a method for charging a battery of a vehicle, a battery charging apparatus, and a vehicle.

Background

Vehicles, particularly electric vehicles, may consume the amount of electricity in the battery even in a non-running state by certain electronic components inside the vehicle, such consumption current being referred to as "dark current". When the battery is low, the battery may request to feed a power supply, such as a direct current power supply (DC-DC), to power the battery.

Conventionally, a direct current power supply (DC-DC) (e.g., for a pure electric vehicle) or a generator (e.g., for a fuel-fired vehicle or a hybrid vehicle) is fixed to charge a battery with a voltage during driving. This can result in overcharging or undercharging, which can affect the life of the battery. In severe cases, the vehicle will not start properly. In addition, charging the battery at a constant voltage also increases power consumption (e.g., for pure electric vehicles) or fuel consumption (e.g., for fuel-powered or hybrid vehicles).

Disclosure of Invention

Embodiments of the present disclosure aim to provide a method for charging a battery of a vehicle, a battery charging apparatus, and a vehicle, to at least partially solve the above-mentioned problems in the prior art.

In a first aspect of the disclosure, a method for charging a battery of a vehicle is provided. The method includes determining at least one operating parameter of the battery; determining a charging voltage for the battery based on the determined at least one operating parameter; and charging the battery based on the determined charging voltage.

According to some embodiments, the at least one operating parameter is selected from one or more of the following parameters: the charge of the battery, the temperature of the battery, the current of the battery, or the voltage of the battery.

According to some embodiments, determining at least one operating parameter of the battery comprises determining a temperature of the battery; and determining the charging voltage for the battery comprises determining the charging voltage as the first charging voltage in response to the determined temperature of the battery being in the first temperature interval.

According to some embodiments, determining the charge voltage for the battery further comprises: the charging voltage is determined as a second charging voltage in response to the determined temperature of the storage battery being in a second temperature interval.

According to some embodiments, determining the charge voltage for the battery further comprises: in response to the determined temperature of the storage battery being in a third temperature interval, the charging voltage is determined as a third charging voltage.

According to some embodiments, the first charging voltage is a constant value in a first voltage range.

According to some embodiments, the second charging voltage is a constant value in a second voltage range.

According to some embodiments, the third charging voltage is a linear function of the temperature of the battery.

According to some embodiments, the temperature in the first temperature interval is lower than the temperature in the second temperature interval.

According to some embodiments, the temperature in the first temperature interval is lower than the temperature in the third temperature interval, and the temperature in the third temperature interval is lower than the temperature in the second temperature interval.

According to some embodiments, the vehicle comprises an electric vehicle.

In a second aspect of the present disclosure, a battery charging apparatus is provided. The battery charging apparatus comprises at least one processor, and at least one memory including computer program instructions, the at least one memory and the computer program instructions configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the battery charging apparatus to perform the method according to the first aspect.

In a third aspect of the disclosure, a computer-readable medium is provided. The computer readable medium comprising machine executable instructions which, when executed, cause a machine to perform the method according to the first aspect.

In a fourth aspect of the present disclosure, a vehicle is provided. The vehicle includes a battery and the battery charging device according to the second aspect.

According to some embodiments, the vehicle comprises one or more of an electric bicycle, an electric motorcycle, and an electric automobile.

Further features of the present disclosure will become apparent from the following description of exemplary embodiments with reference to the attached drawings. It should be understood that this summary is not intended to identify key or critical features of the embodiments of the disclosure, nor is it intended to be used to limit the scope of the disclosure. Other features of the present disclosure will become apparent from the following description.

Drawings

The above and other objects, features and advantages of the present disclosure will become more apparent by describing in more detail exemplary embodiments thereof in conjunction with the attached drawings. In the example embodiments of the present disclosure, like reference numerals generally refer to like parts.

FIG. 1 shows a schematic diagram of an exemplary scenario in which embodiments of the present disclosure can be implemented.

Fig. 2 shows a schematic diagram of a battery charging apparatus according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 3 shows a flow chart of a method for charging a battery of a vehicle according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

Fig. 4 shows a schematic diagram of the temperature versus charging voltage of a battery according to an embodiment of the disclosure.

FIG. 5 shows a schematic block diagram of an apparatus that may be used to implement embodiments of the present disclosure.

Detailed Description

The present disclosure will now be described with reference to several example embodiments. It should be understood that these examples are described only for the purpose of enabling those skilled in the art to better understand and thereby enable the present disclosure, and are not intended to set forth any limitations on the scope of the technical solutions of the present disclosure.

As used herein, the term "include" and its variants are to be read as open-ended terms meaning "including, but not limited to. The term "based on" will be read as "based at least in part on". The terms "one embodiment" and "an embodiment" should be understood as "at least one embodiment". The term "another embodiment" should be understood as "at least one other embodiment". The terms "first," "second," and the like may refer to different or the same object. Other explicit and implicit definitions may be included below. The definitions of the terms are consistent throughout the specification unless the context clearly dictates otherwise.

As described hereinabove, in a conventional manner, a direct current power supply (DC-DC) (e.g., for a pure electric vehicle) or a generator (e.g., for a fuel-powered vehicle or a hybrid vehicle) of a vehicle, particularly an electric vehicle, charges a battery with a fixed voltage. Since various parameters (e.g., ambient temperature) may affect the optimal charge acceptance voltage of the secondary battery, the conventional constant voltage charging mode may affect the lifespan of the secondary battery when the state of the secondary battery is unknown. In addition, overcharging may cause vehicle energy losses, resulting in increased charge losses (e.g., for pure electric vehicles) or fuel consumption (e.g., for fuel-fired or hybrid vehicles).

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, and potentially other problems, based on the research of the present inventors on the charging characteristics of the storage battery, embodiments of the present disclosure provide a method for charging the storage battery of a vehicle, a storage battery charging apparatus, and a vehicle. The charging method and the charging device can provide a method for intelligently adjusting the charging voltage for the power supply system of the vehicle. The method can ensure that the storage battery is always in an optimal charging state, thereby effectively prolonging the service life of the storage battery, reducing the damage rate of storage battery parts on the vehicle and reducing the energy loss of the whole vehicle. Some example embodiments of the present disclosure will be described in detail below with reference to fig. 1 to 5.

The steps of the control method according to the present disclosure may be implemented in one of the ECU113, the BCM115, the GW116, or a power management control module (not shown) of the vehicle, or may be implemented by two or more of the above respective control modules working in cooperation. The present disclosure is not limited in this respect.

(1) when the temperature of the storage battery is too low, the activity of the battery is reduced, and charging is difficult. Therefore, in this case, the charging voltage is to be raised. Preferably, charging is performed at a high voltage constant voltage in order to improve charging efficiency.

(2) When the temperature of the storage battery is too high, if the charging voltage is also too high, gas evolution is too fast, and water loss and polar plate corrosion are caused. Therefore, in this case, the charging voltage should be lowered to charge at a low voltage constant voltage in order to reduce damage to the battery.

(3) When the temperature is in the interval between low temperature and high temperature, if the temperature of the storage battery is lower, the charging voltage should be increased so as to rapidly increase the electric quantity of the storage battery and prevent the over-discharge of the storage battery (the over-discharge can affect the service life of the storage battery); if the battery temperature is high, the battery charging voltage should be lowered to prevent overcharging.

U＝C-D*T(1)

Based on the above formula (2), for example, in some embodiments, if a is 15.5, B is 13.5, C is 15.5, and D is 0.05, the above formula (2) becomes the following formula (3):

the relationship of the above equation (3) is shown as a piecewise function in fig. 4.

Further, in some embodiments, the vehicle involved in the method according to the present disclosure includes an electric vehicle, for example, an electric bicycle, an electric motorcycle, an electric automobile, and the like.

Therefore, the method can determine the proper charging voltage according to the actual operation parameters of the storage battery, so that the storage battery is always in the optimal charging state, the service life of the storage battery is effectively prolonged, the damage rate of storage battery parts on a vehicle is reduced, and the energy loss of the whole vehicle is reduced.

It should be noted that the embodiments of the present disclosure can be realized by hardware, software, or a combination of software and hardware. The hardware portion may be implemented using dedicated logic; the software portions may be stored in a memory and executed by a suitable instruction execution system, such as a microprocessor or specially designed hardware. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the apparatus and methods described above may be implemented using computer executable instructions and/or embodied in processor control code, such code being provided, for example, in programmable memory or on a data carrier such as an optical or electronic signal carrier.

By way of example, embodiments of the disclosure may be described in the context of machine-executable instructions, such as those included in program modules, being executed in a device on a target real or virtual processor. Generally, program modules include routines, programs, libraries, objects, classes, components, data structures, etc. that perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types. In various embodiments, the functionality of the program modules may be combined or divided between program modules as described. Machine-executable instructions for program modules may be executed within local or distributed devices. In a distributed facility, program modules may be located in both local and remote memory storage media.

Computer program code for implementing the methods of the present disclosure may be written in one or more programming languages. These computer program codes may be provided to a processor of a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, or other programmable data processing apparatus, such that the program codes, when executed by the computer or other programmable data processing apparatus, cause the functions/acts specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block or blocks to be performed. The program code may execute entirely on the computer, partly on the computer, as a stand-alone software package, partly on the computer and partly on a remote computer or entirely on the remote computer or server.

In the context of the present disclosure, computer program code or related data may be carried by any suitable carrier to enable a device, apparatus or processor to perform various processes and operations described above. Examples of a carrier include a signal, computer readable medium, and the like. Examples of signals may include electrical, optical, radio, acoustic, or other forms of propagated signals, such as carrier waves, infrared signals, and the like.

The computer readable medium may be any tangible medium that can contain, or store a program for use by or in connection with an instruction execution system, apparatus, or device. The computer readable medium may be a computer readable signal medium or a computer readable storage medium. A computer readable medium may include, but is not limited to, an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system, apparatus, or device, or any suitable combination thereof. More detailed examples of a computer-readable storage medium include an electrical connection having one or more wires, a portable computer diskette, a hard disk, a Random Access Memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or flash memory), an optical storage device, a magnetic storage device, or any suitable combination thereof.

Further, while the operations of the methods of the present disclosure are depicted in the drawings in a particular order, this does not require or imply that these operations must be performed in this particular order, or that all of the illustrated operations must be performed, to achieve desirable results. Rather, the steps depicted in the flowcharts may change the order of execution. Additionally or alternatively, certain steps may be omitted, multiple steps combined into one step execution, and/or one step broken down into multiple step executions. It should also be noted that the features and functions of two or more devices according to the present disclosure may be embodied in one device. Conversely, the features and functions of one apparatus described above may be further divided into embodiments by a plurality of apparatuses.

It is to be understood that the above detailed embodiments of the disclosure are merely illustrative of or explaining the principles of the disclosure and are not limiting of the disclosure. Therefore, any modification, equivalent replacement, improvement and the like made within the spirit and principle of the present invention should be included in the protection scope of the present invention. Also, it is intended that the following claims cover all such changes and modifications that fall within the scope and boundaries of the claims or the equivalents of the scope and boundaries.