Ni-MH HEV Battery Reconditioning

This thesis focuses on exploring the reconditioning Ni-MH HEV batteries. The goal of this thesis is to demonstrate the viability of a method for reconditioning Ni-MH HEV batteries which involves charging battery modules in series. To do this, a set of 8 modules were reconditioned by charging them in series and another set of 8 modules were reconditioned by charging them individually. Both sets of modules were charged at a rate of around 0.05C. Additionally, the modules connected in series were charged using a controlled current for cell balancing. The effectiveness of each reconditioning method was evaluated through capacity estimation. The capacity estimation was done during a standard five-hour discharge using simple coulomb counting. This experiment showed that charging the set of 8 modules in series is an effective method to use for reconditioning. Furthermore, it can be reasonably assumed from these results that charging an entire Ni-MH HEV battery pack in series is an effective method for reconditioning.