Valve Regulated Lead-Acid (VRLA) batteries can degrade due to a variety of mechanisms, including corrosion, hard sulfation, water loss, shedding, and active mass degradation. Hard sulfation can be the dominant aging mechanism for many cells. In this paper, pressure feedback is used to minimize water loss during low current charging designed to break up hard sulfate and recover capacity. A VRLA battery that was cycle tested to failure is used to test the desulfation charging control scheme. One cell of this battery that was diagnosed with sulfation degradation was desulfated for 313 hrs at an average current of 0.2 A. The capacity of the cell was recovered by 41% with minimal water loss, demonstrating the effectiveness of the desulfation charge controller.
- Dynamic Systems and Control Division
Capacity Recovery of a Sulfated Lead-Acid Battery Using Pressure Feedback Charging Control
Shi, Y, Ferone, CA, & Rahn, CD. "Capacity Recovery of a Sulfated Lead-Acid Battery Using Pressure Feedback Charging Control." Proceedings of the ASME 2012 5th Annual Dynamic Systems and Control Conference joint with the JSME 2012 11th Motion and Vibration Conference. Volume 1: Adaptive Control; Advanced Vehicle Propulsion Systems; Aerospace Systems; Autonomous Systems; Battery Modeling; Biochemical Systems; Control Over Networks; Control Systems Design; Cooperative and Decentralized Control; Dynamic System Modeling; Dynamical Modeling and Diagnostics in Biomedical Systems; Dynamics and Control in Medicine and Biology; Estimation and Fault Detection; Estimation and Fault Detection for Vehicle Applications; Fluid Power Systems; Human Assistive Systems and Wearable Robots; Human-in-the-Loop Systems; Intelligent Transportation Systems; Learning Control. Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA. October 17–19, 2012. pp. 287-291. ASME. https://doi.org/10.1115/DSCC2012-MOVIC2012-8584
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