Estimation of specific gravity and state of charge of lead acid battery

V.P.Labade, N. M. Kulkarni
Department of Electronic Science, Fergusson College, Pune-411004, India
e-mail:vplabade@rediffmail.com, nmkulkarni123@yahoo.com

Abstract: Knowing the amount of energy left in a battery compared with the energy when it was full gives the
user an indication of how much longer a battery will continue to perform before it needs recharging. The
specific gravity of the rechargeable battery is very much important to understand capacity of the battery.
This is the customary way of determining the charge condition of lead acid batteries. It depends on measuring
changes in the weight of the active chemicals. As the battery discharges the active electrolyte, sulphuric acid,
is consumed and the concentration of the sulphuric acid in water is reduced. This in turn reduces the specific
gravity of the solution in direct proportion to the state of charge. The actual specific gravity of the electrolyte
indicates the state of charge of the rechargeable battery. During discharge, the specific gravity decreases
linearly with the ampere-hours discharged. The specific gravity measurements cannot be taken on sealed
lead-acid batteries hence open circuit voltage indicates the state of charge (SOC). Determining the state of
charge of sealed batteries is under development. In this paper the attempt is made to measure the specific
gravity and state of charge (SOC), depth of discharge (DOD) of sealed batteries using terminal voltage [2].
State of Charge is equivalent of a fuel gauge of a battery electric vehicle (BEV), hybrid vehicle (HEV),
or plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) [1]. The Life expectancy of the battery measured in cycles. The
depth of discharge has a major affect on the life expectancy of a battery. The LabVIEW graphical
programming environment is used to develop the system for measurement the battery performance
parameters of the rechargeable battery. The LabVIEW and MATLAB tool are used to estimate battery
performance parameters of the rechargeable battery.
Keywords: Specific gravity; State of Charge (SOC); Depth of Discharge (DOD); LabVIEW

I.

INTRODUCTION

The specific gravity of the rechargeable battery is very much important to understand capacity of the battery. The
specific gravity of solution depends on measuring changes in the weight of the active chemicals. As the battery
discharges the active electrolyte is consumed and the concentration of the sulphuric acid in water is reduced. This in
turn reduces the specific gravity of the solution in direct proportion to the state of charge. The actual specific gravity
of the electrolyte indicates the state of charge of the rechargeable battery. Generally specific gravity measurements
cannot be taken on sealed lead-acid batteries hence open circuit voltage has been used as an indication of the state of
charge. Determination of the state of charge of sealed batteries is under development. The SOC and DOD can be
estimated with the help of terminal voltage of the battery for sealed lead acid battery. The results can be vary widely
because it is depending on actual voltage level, temperature, discharge rate and the age of the cell and compensation
for these factors must be provided to achieve a reasonable accuracy. The energy contained in an electric charge is
measured in Coulombs and is equal to the integral over time of the current which delivered the charge.

Figure 1: Experimental setup of measurement of Specific Gravity and SOC and snap shot of the developed system

The remaining capacity in a cell can be calculated by measuring the current entering (charging) or leaving
(discharging) the cells and integrating (accumulating) this over the time. The designed system utilizes a data
acquisition card of manufacturer National Instrument (NI) along with LabVIEW tool to read battery parameters. The
SOC of the battery determines the available capacity of the battery and is expressed as a percentage of some
reference, sometimes its rated capacity but more likely its current capacity. For estimation of SOC coulomb counting
technique is used and accurate values of ampere hour is displayed [4]. The depth of discharge has a major effect on
the life expectancy of a battery. The experimental setup for measuring battery parameters are given in the block
diagram figure1.Thsi block diagram consists of battery, signal conditioning unit, electrical load to discharge the
battery. The student versions of LabVIEW and MATLAB tool are used effectively to estimate some of the battery
parameters.

II.
SYSTEM IMPLEMENTATION
The system is implemented and verified using LabVIEW tool. The data acquisition module of USB 6008 card is
used to read battery voltage and temperature of the battery. The data is taken in to the program and processed
according to the requirement. The MATLAB code is used to find SOC and specific gravity from open circuit voltage
of the battery. The front panel and block diagram panel of the application is given in fig.3. Specific gravity is the
ratio of the weight of a solution to the weight of an equal volume of water at a specified temperature (gm/ml). This
is the customary way of determining the charge condition of lead acid batteries. It depends on measuring changes in
the weight of the active chemicals. As the battery discharges the active electrolyte, sulphuric acid, is consumed and
the concentration of the sulphuric acid in water is reduced. This in turn reduces the specific gravity of the solution in
direct proportion to the state of charge. The actual specific gravity of the electrolyte indicates the state of charge of
the battery. Specific gravity is traditionally measured using a suction type hydrometer. Nowadays electronic sensors
are available for digital measurement of the specific gravity that can be incorporated directly into the cells. This
technique of determining the SOC is not normally suitable for other cell chemistries. Specific gravity indicates the
state of charge of a cell or battery. During discharge, the specific gravity decreases linearly with the ampere-hours
discharged.

Figure 2: Front panel and Block diagram of the developed system

Therefore, during fully charged steady-state operation and on discharge, measurement of the specific gravity of the
electrolyte provides an approximate indication of the state of charge of the cell.
The specific gravity measurements cannot be taken on sealed lead-acid batteries hence open circuit voltage has been
used as an indication of the state of charge of a sealed battery. Determining the state of charge of sealed batteries is
under development. Specific gravity varies with temperature and the quantity of electrolyte in a cell. The following
equations permit electrical monitoring of approximate specific gravity.
Specific gravity = single cell_ open circuit voltage - 0.845

If single cell_open circuit voltage is 2.13v then specific gravity will be 1.285. The specific gravity of a fully
charged industrial battery, or traction battery, is generally1.285, depending on the manufacturer and type. Some
manufacturers use specific gravities as high as 1.320 in an attempt to gain additional Ah capacity, but at the cost of a
shorter cycle life.

III.

STATE OF CHARGE (SOC)

The SOC is defined as the available capacity expressed as a percentage of some reference, sometimes its rated
capacity but more likely its current capacity. Using the analogy of a fuel tank in a car, State of Charge (SOC)
estimation is often called the Gas Gauge or Fuel Gauge function. The preferred SOC reference should be the rated
capacity of a new cell rather than the current capacity of the cell. This is because the cell capacity gradually reduces
as the cell ages. Temperature and discharge rate effects reduce the effective capacity even further. The difference in
reference points is important if the user is depending on the SOC estimation as he would in a real gas
gauge application in a electrical vehicle [1]. Unfortunately the SOC measurement reference is often defined as the
current capacity of the cell instead of the rated capacity. In this case a fully charged cell, nearing the end of its life,
could have an SOC of 100% but it would only have an effective capacity of 80% of its rated capacity and adjustment
factors would have to be applied to the estimated capacity to compare it to its rated new capacity. Using the current
capacity rather than the rated capacity is usually a design shortcut or compromise to avoid the complexity of
determining and allowing for the age related capacity adjustments which are conveniently ignored.
The accurate estimation of the remaining charge in the battery is required the ageing and environmental factors must
be taken into account. In electrical vehicle applications the SOC is used to determine range [6]. It is an absolute
value based on capacity of the battery when new, not a percentage of current capacity which could result in an error
of 20% or more due to battery ageing. Automotive fuel gauges are notoriously imprecise so an SOC accuracy of 5%,
if it could be achieved, would probably be satisfactory for such applications. In hybrid electrical vehicle the SOC
determines when the engine is switched on and off. The SOC is measured using different methods i.e. direct method,
specific gravity, voltage and current method or coulomb counting method. The data of manufacturer is fitted using
cubic spline method and constant coefficients are calculated for specific gravity and state of charge of the battery.
The values coefficients are P1, P2, P3, P4, P4, P5, P6 and P7 are given below. The equations are in terms of open
circuit voltage is given below in equation number 1 and 2.

IV.

CURVE FITTING
Cubic spline method of curve fitting used two point boundary value problem and integral equation. The data fitting
by means of polynomial has been considered in mechanical splines. The resulting approximation is called as spline
approximation or cubic spline. This method is used to fit a unique curve with given data of batter voltage, SOC and
Specific gravity of the battery. The following equation (1) and (2) derived and relation of specific gravity and SOC
is written in terms of battery voltage
Specific Gravity= P1 (Battery Voltage) 3 + P2 (Battery Voltage) 2 + P3 (Battery Voltage) + P4 _______________ (1)
Where P1, P2, P3 and P4 are constant coefficients.i.e.P1= 0.003926, P2=0.058853, P3=0.50183, P4=6.5621
State of Charge= P5 (Battery Voltage) 3 + P6 (Battery Voltage) 2 + P7 (Battery Voltage) + P8 _______________ (2)
Where P5, P6, P7 and P8 are constant coefficients i.e.P5= 5.0884, P6=115.62, P7=418.36, P8=2815.2
Direct Measurement would be easy if the battery could be discharged at a constant rate. The charge in a battery is
equal to the current multiplied by the time for which it flowed. Unfortunately there are two problems with this. In all
practical batteries, the discharge current is not constant but diminishes as the battery becomes discharged, usually in
a non-linear way. Any measurement device must therefore be able to integrate current over time. Secondly, this
method depends on discharging the battery to know how much charge it contained [3]. In most applications except
perhaps in qualification testing, the user (or the system) needs to know how much charge is in the cell without
discharging it.
It is not possible either to measure directly the effective charge in a battery by monitoring the actual charge put into
it during charging. This is because of the Coulombic efficiency of the battery. Losses in the battery during the charge
- discharge cycle mean that the battery will deliver less charge during discharge than was put into it during charging.
The Coulombic efficiency or charge acceptance is a measure of how much usable energy is available during

discharging compared with the energy used to charge the cell. Charge efficiency is also affected by temperature and
SOC
SOC can be estimated from voltage of the battery or cell as the basis for calculating SOC .The results can vary
depending on actual voltage level, temperature, discharge rate and the age of the cell and compensation for these
factors must be provided to achieve a reasonable accuracy. Terminal voltage is the voltage of battery terminals with
the load applied. The terminal voltage varies with state of charge and charge/discharge current. The voltage between
the battery terminals without load applied is open circuit voltage. The open circuit voltage depends on the battery
state of charge and increases with state of charge.
The energy contained in an electric charge is measured in Coulombs and is equal to the integral over time of the
current which delivered the charge. The remaining capacity in a cell can be calculated by measuring the current
entering (charging) or leaving (discharging) the cells and integrating (accumulating) this over the time. The
calibration reference point is a fully charged cell, not an empty cell, and the SOC is obtained by subtracting the net
charge flow from the charge in a fully charged cell. This method, known as Coulomb counting, provides higher
accuracy than most other SOC measurements since it measures the charge flow directly. However it still needs
compensation to allow for the operating conditions as with the voltage based method. Current shunt, Hall Effect and
GMR magneto resistive sensors for current sensing purpose. Coulomb counting depends on the current flowing from
the battery into external circuits and does not take account of self discharge currents or the Coulombic efficiency of
the battery.
During the cell charge - discharge cycles the composition of the active chemicals in the cell changes as the
chemicals are converted between the charged and discharged states and this will be reflected in changes to the cell
impedance. Thus measurements of cell internal impedance can also be used to determine SOC however these are not
widely used due to difficulties in measuring the impedance while the cell is active as well as difficulties in
interpreting the data since the impedance is also temperature dependent [3]. The resistance within the battery,
generally different for charging and discharging, also dependent on the battery state of charge. As internal resistance
increases, the battery efficiency decreases and thermal stability is reduced as more of the charging energy is
converted in to heat.
The Life expectancy of the battery measured in cycles, or how many times they can be discharged and recharged
before they will no longer take a full charge. The depth of discharge (D.O.D.) has a major effect on the life
expectancy of a battery - discharging only 80% of the total capacity of the battery will typically give 25% more
cycles than total discharges [3]. The discharging of the same battery up to 20% of the total capacity of the battery
will make the battery last essentially forever.

V.
RESULT AND CONCLUSION
The software is written in LabVIEW and data taken from the rechargeable battery through data acquisition card
USB 6008. The expected and observed values of SOC and specific gravity are given in the fig.3. The observed
values of soc and specific gravities are nearby same the each other within the some experimental error. The snap
shot of the LabVIEW front panel is given below fig2.
The system also gives other electrical parameter of the battery i.e. open circuit voltage and temperature of the
rechargeable battery. The temperature is important factor which affects the life of the battery. Hence this parameter
is added and shown in the result

Figure 3: Expected and observed values of the Specific Gravity and SOC
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors of this paper would like thank to acknowledge Dr.A.D.Shaligram, Head of Electronic Science
Department, University of Pune and Principal Dr.R.G.Pardeshi, Prof.J.V.Khedkar, Fergusson College, Pune for
promoting and motivating the research environment of the department.
REFERENCE
[1] James Larminie (Oxford Brookes university oxford UK), John Lowry (Acenti Designs Ltd., UK), Electric
Vehicle Technology Explained, By Publication John Wiley and sons, Ltd.
[2] Robyn A. Jackey A simple, effective lead-acid battery modeling process for electrical system component
selection [2007-01-0778]
[3] A Guide to Understanding Battery Specifications, MIT Electric Vehicle Team, December 2008
[4]V.P.Labade, N. M. Kulkarni and A. D. Shaligram Intelligent Battery Health Monitoring System for
Uninterrupted Power Supply NSI-36 (20-22, October 2011, Bareilly, UP) Journal of the Instrument Society of India
ISSN 0970-9983 Vol.41 No.4 pp213-216(2011)
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Battery Parameters of Electric Vehicle [Recent Trends in Alternate Energy RTAE 2011, NIT Kozhikode
(Calicut),Kerala, P-P 33, 9-10 Jun 2011]
[6] Modeling of Hybrid Electric Vehicle Batteries by Ram Chandra Maddala, B.E. a thesis in electrical engineering
Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle Control Strategy Parameter Optimization Aymeric Rousseau, Sylvain Pagerit
Argonne National Laboratory 9700 S Cass Ave, IL 60439, USA