Method for charging an energy storage element of a vehicle using a modular charging apparatus with high overall efficiency

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11117485-B2
Application number	US-201916295338-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 7, 2019
Priority date	Mar 14, 2018
Publication date	Sep 14, 2021
Grant date	Sep 14, 2021

Abstract

A method for charging an energy storage element of a vehicle using a charging apparatus which provides a charging current (IL) and a charging voltage (U) at an operating point. The charging apparatus has a plurality of energy supply modules connected in parallel, having the following method steps: in an optimization step, a distribution of the charging current (IL) to the energy supply modules connected in parallel, in the case of which the charging apparatus has a maximum overall efficiency, is respectively determined for a plurality of predefined operating points; in a charging step which follows the optimization step, a distribution of the charging current (IL) to the individual energy supply modules of the charging apparatus, in the case of which the charging apparatus has a maximum overall efficiency, is selected on the basis of a predefined charging current (IL) and a predefined charging voltage (U).

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for charging an energy storage element of a vehicle using a charging apparatus which provides a charging current (I L ) and a charging voltage (U) at an operating point, wherein the charging apparatus has a plurality of energy supply modules connected in parallel, said method comprising:
in an optimization step, the method comprises distributing the charging current to the energy supply modules connected in parallel, wherein the charging apparatus has a maximum overall efficiency that is respectively determined for a plurality of predefined operating points; and
in a charging step which follows the optimization step, the method comprises distributing the charging current (I L ) to the individual energy supply modules of the charging apparatus, wherein the charging apparatus has a maximum overall efficiency that is selected on the basis of a predefined charging current (I L ) and a predefined charging voltage (U),
wherein, during the charging step, the method comprises selecting the distribution of the charging current to the individual energy supply modules using a decision tree classifier.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein, in an approximation step preceding the optimization step, the method comprises determining an approximation of an efficiency (η N ) of an individual energy supply module on a basis of an output voltage (U) and an output current (I M1 , I M2 , I MN ) of the energy supply module.

3. The method as claimed in claim 2 , wherein, in the approximation step, the approximation is carried out by linear approximation or quadratic approximation or cubic approximation.

4. The method as claimed in claim 2 , wherein, in a measurement step preceding the approximation step, the method comprises determining the efficiency (η N ) of the energy supply module for a plurality of module operating points, wherein the module operating points each comprise an output voltage (U) and an output current (I M1 , I M2 , I MN ) of the energy supply module.

5. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the method comprises determining a number of active energy supply modules in the optimization step, wherein the active energy supply modules have an identical output current (I M1 , I M2 , I MN ).

6. The method as claimed in claim 5 , wherein, in the optimization step, the method comprises determining the distribution of the charging current to the active energy supply modules on a basis of the determined number of active energy supply modules using a gradient method.

7. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the method comprises determining an actual overall efficiency of the charging apparatus during the charging step.

8. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the method comprises determining an actual efficiency (η N ) of the individual energy supply modules during the charging step.

9. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the optimization step is carried out before the vehicle storage element is connected to the charging apparatus.

10. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the optimization step is continued during the charging step.

11. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein in the optimization step, the method comprises distributing the charging current to the energy supply modules connected in parallel in a sequential fashion.

12. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the predefined operating points comprise different combinations of charging currents and charging voltages.

Assignees

• Porsche Ag

Inventors

• Metzger Christian
• Hähre Karsten
• De Jongh Steven
• Jankovic Marija

Classifications

• H02J7/90

  Regulation of charging or discharging current or voltage · CPC title

• H02J7/00

  Circuit arrangements for charging or discharging batteries or for supplying loads from batteries · CPC title

• B60L53/00 Primary

  Methods of charging batteries, specially adapted for electric vehicles; Charging stations or on-board charging equipment therefor; Exchange of energy storage elements in electric vehicles · CPC title

• B60L53/22 Primary

  Constructional details or arrangements of charging converters specially adapted for charging electric vehicles · CPC title

• B60L53/62 Primary

  in response to charging parameters, e.g. current, voltage or electrical charge · CPC title