What is lithium battery imbalancing?

Lithium battery cells imbalancing occurs when individual cells in a battery pack exhibit varying states of charge, capacity, or voltage. This discrepancy can compromise the battery’s overall performance and safety. For instance: Variations in capacity and impedance create uneven cell currents, generating heat and temperature gradients.

Does a lithium ion battery have a balance problem?

If you built a lithium-ion battery and its capacity is not what you expect, then you more than likely have a balance issue. While it's true that cells connected in parallel will find their own natural balance, the same is not true for cells wired in series. Battery cells in series have no way of transferring energy between one another.

What happens if a battery pack is out of balance?

A battery pack is out of balance when any property or state of those cells differs. Imbalanced cells lock away otherwise usable energy and increase battery degradation. Batteries that are out of balance cannot be fully charged or fully discharged, and the imbalance causes cells to wear and degrade at accelerated rates.

Do you know how to balance a lithium battery pack?

Whether you are new to battery building or a seasoned professional, it's totally normal to not know how to balance a lithium battery pack. Most of the time when building a battery, as long as you use a decent BMS, it will balance the pack for you over time. The problem is, this can take a very, very long time.

How to balance a battery pack correctly?

needs two key things to balance a battery pack correctly: balancing circuitry and balancing algorithms. While a few methods exist to implement balancing circuitry, they all rely on balancing algorithms to know which cells to balance and when. So far, we have been assuming that the BMS knows the SoC and the amount of energy in each series cell.

Why are electric bike batteries prone to capacity imbalance?

Take electric bike batteries as an example, since the battery packs of electric vehicles are used in series, they are prone to capacity imbalance after a period of time. Battery cell imbalance occurs when individual cells within a battery pack exhibit different charge levels, capacities or performance.