To eliminate the influence of the inconsistency on the cycle life and the available capacity of battery packs, and improve the balancing speed, a novel inductor-based layered bidirectional equalizer (IBLBE) is proposed. The equalizer is composed of two layers of balancing circuits connected in parallel. Each layer contains multiple balancing sub-circuits based on buck-boost converters. These balancing sub-circuits can equalize the corresponding cells simultaneously, and allow the dynamic adjustment of equalization path and equalization threshold. Analysis and simulation results demonstrate the IBLBE has a higher level balancing speed than other equalizers based on switched-capacitor or switched-inductor converters, and reduces the balancing time by 30% compared to existing inductor-based parallel architecture equalizers (PAEs). Experimental results are presented to validate the analysis and effectiveness of the proposed equalizer.

Large numbers of non-dissipative equalizers have been proposed for solving the inconsistency problem of lithium battery strings. However, these equalizers face problems such as slow speed or using excessively large numbers of energy storage elements. This paper improved a multiple switch-inductors equalizer (MSIE), and proposed a novel inductor-based non-dissipative equalizer (NIBNDE). A simulation is built to compare the NIBNDE with two other equalizers, which indicated that the NIBNDE can reduce the number of energy storage elements while remaining at a good equalization speed. Experimental results validate the analysis of the simulation and the feasibility of the NIBNDE.