Lithium battery charging optimization via multi-stage combined charging strategy in solar-powered vehicles

In solar-powered vehicle energy management, designing an efficient and healthy lithium battery charging strategy can enhance mission execution and prolong flight endurance. However, there are several limitations in the charging process of the vehicle that prevent the direct implementation of the existing charging approaches. In this paper, a multi-stage charging strategy is proposed from the solar irradiance constraints, which aims at improving charging efficiency and inhibiting battery aging. Subsequently, a weighted multi-optimization objective function incorporating charging anxiety and battery health is put forward. The battery model takes full account of the coupling electrical, thermodynamic and aging properties of lithium batteries. Finally, a particle swarm optimization with a linearly decreasing weight algorithm is employed to obtain the optimal charging strategy under different weighting factors. Simulation and experimental results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm significantly reduces the charging time and extends the battery life compared with traditional charging ones.