An analysis of the influence of high-frequency ripple currents on dynamic charge acceptance in lead-acid batteries

This paper presents the results of an experimental analysis of the influence of high-frequency injected ripple currents on the Dynamic Charge Acceptance (DCA) performance of lead-acid batteries. A wide-bandwidth battery model, derived from real-world data is described, this being a hybrid of the standard Randles model and a high-frequency model previously presented in literature. A bespoke test procedure is introduced, based on the existing DCA Short Test profile (EN50342-6). The results demonstrate that the injection of ripple currents can significantly improve charge acceptance, whilst having no appreciable effect on the State of Charge (SoC) of the battery. This study further demonstrates the importance of knowledge of the impedance spectrum of the battery if the improvements in DCA performance are to be achieved with maximum efficiency and effectiveness.