Butler–Volmer-Equation-Based Electrical Model for High-Power Lithium Titanate Batteries Used in Electric Vehicles

The lithium titanate battery, which uses Li₄Ti₅O₁₂ (LTO) as its anode instead of graphite, is a promising candidate for fast charging and power assist vehicular applications due to its attractive battery performance in rate characteristics and chemical stability. Unfortunately, commonly used battery models, including a large number of enhanced electrical models, become problematic when describing current-voltage characteristics of lithium titanate batteries. In this paper, a novel Butler-Volmer equation-based electric model is employed to outline unique phenomena induced by changing rates for high-power lithium titanate batteries. The robustness of the proposed model for three types of lithium titanate batteries under varying loading conditions, including galvanostatic test and Federal Urban Dynamic Schedule test, is evaluated and compared against experimental data. The experimental results of three types of lithium titanate batteries with common anode materials but differentiated cathode materials show good agreement with the model estimation results with maximum voltage errors below 2%.