Temperature Estimation in Lithium-Ion Cells Assembled in Series-Parallel Circuits Using an Artificial Neural Network Based on Impedance Data

Abstract

Lithium-ion cells are widely used in various applications. For optimal performance and safety, it is crucial to have accurate knowledge of the temperature of each cell. However, determining the temperature for individual cells is challenging as the core temperature may significantly differ from the surface temperature, leading to the need for further research in this field. This study presents the first sensorless temperature estimation method for determining the core temperature of each cell within a battery module. The accuracy of temperature estimation is in the range of ΔT≈1 K. The cell temperature is determined using an artificial neural network (ANN) based on electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) data. Additionally, by optimizing the frequency range, the number of measurement points, input neurons, measurement time, and computational effort are significantly reduced, while maintaining or even improving the accuracy of temperature estimation. The required time for the EIS measurement can be reduced to 0.5 s, and the temperature calculation takes place within a few milliseconds. The setup consists of cylindrical 18,650 lithium-ion cells assembled into modules with a 3s2p configuration. The core temperature of the cells was measured using sensors placed inside each cell. For the EIS measurement, alternating current excitation was applied across the entire module, and voltage was measured individually for each cell. Various State of Charge (SoC), ambient temperatures, and DC loads were investigated. Compared to other methods for temperature determination, the advantages of the presented study lie in the simplicity of the approach. Only one impedance chip per module is required as additional hardware to apply the AC current. The ANN consists of a simple feedforward network with only one layer in the hidden layer, resulting in minimal computational effort, making this approach attractive for real-world applications.