Synergized Heating and Optimal Charging of Lithium-Ion Batteries at Low Temperature

Low-temperature charging can induce irreversible damage to the lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) due to the low activity of key composites and physical processes. This has been recognized as a major challenge for the popularity of electric vehicles. Motivated by this, this article proposes a novel heating-charging synergized strategy which coordinates the heating and charging mode smartly for enhanced cold-charging performance. This endeavor is enabled by formulating and solving a multi-objective optimization problem, which considers comprehensively the charging rapidity, energy loss, and the consciousness to LIB physical limitations. The coupling effect and optimized synergy between charging and heating are suggested, for the first time, to provide an improved low-temperature charging solution. The proposed synergized strategy is compared with commonly used decoupled 'preheating-charging' strategy by both simulations and experiments. Results suggest its superiority regarding the rapid battery refueling, limited energy loss, and the high adaptivity to the charging environment.