Design Alternatives

For this project, several design alternatives can be taken into consideration such as:

Integrated Circuit
Battery Pack
Battery Cells
Funding

Integrated Circuit:

The Battery Management System Integrated Circuit is the essential component needed in order for our PCB to function correctly. Keeping this in mind, we want an IC that is capable of balancing up to 16 lithium ion cells, contains a fault detection feature, prevents over and under voltages, and has the ability to monitor temperature readings. The following two companies were considered when selecting our Integrated Circuit.

Texas Instruments IC
Linear Technology IC

Battery Pack Accumulator:

There are different ways to design and build the battery pack for this project. For example, different materials such as carbon fiber can be used to design a lightweight and strong battery accumulator enclosure. However, carbon fiber will add to our costs significantly. Our team can choose alternative methods for the accumulator designs as listed below:

Design and 3-D print parts for the battery pack.
Buy materials from local hardware store and build to appropriate specifications.
Alternative Materials: Carbon fiber, honeycomb structures, aluminum, thermoplastics such as polypropylene

Rechargeable Battery Cells:

There are many different types of rechargeable battery cell chemistries that can be taken into consideration when building an electric vehicle:

Lithium ion cells - relatively maintenance free but are prone to overcharging and rapid discharging.
Lithium Polymer cells - lightweight and no shape restrictions, but energy density and recharge cycles are lower compared to lithium ion cells.
Lead Acid cells - lower cost per amp-hour but will tend to "swell" (increase in volume) as they age.
Nickel-Metal Hydride (NiMH) cells - robust but higher costs than lead acid cells.

Funding:

The Battery Management System requires build materials, a large list of components, PCB manufacturing, safety equipment, and battery cells, amounting to an expensive project. This required us to find several methods of funding such as:

Receive sponsorship's and donations from various companies.
IRA funding
IEEE funding

Google Sites

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