Modelling, Simulation and Characterization of a Supercapacitor in Automotive Applications

In the energy storage field, supercapacitors (SCs) are gaining more and more attention thanks to features such as high-power density, high life cycles and lack of maintenance. In this article, an improved SC three-branches model which considers the residual charge phenomenon is presented. The procedure to estimate the model parameters and the related experimental set-up are presented. The parameter estimation procedure is repeated for several SCs of the same type. The average parameters are then obtained and used as initial guesses for a recursive least square optimization algorithm, to increase the accuracy of the model. The model of a single SC is then extended to SC banks, testing different configurations and operating conditions. The simulation results, obtained in Matlab/Simulink environment for both the single SC and the different SC bank configurations, are validated with experimental tests to assess the model accuracy.