Inductor optimization for active cell balancing using geometric programming

This paper proposes an optimization methodology for inductor components in active cell balancing architectures of electric vehicle battery packs. For this purpose, we introduce a new mathematical model to quantitatively describe the charge transfer of a family of inductor-based circuits. Utilizing worst case assumptions, this model yields a nonlinear program for designing the inductor and selecting the transfer current. In the next step, we transform this problem into a geometric program that can be efficiently solved. The optimized inductor reduces energy dissipation by at least 20% in various scenarios compared to a previous approach which selected an optimal off-the-shelf inductor.