Experimental Investigation of an Electrical Model for Sodium–Nickel Chloride Batteries

This work describes the experimental characterization of a commercial sodium–nickel chloride battery and the investigation on a state-of-the-art model that represents the battery behavior. This battery technology is considered very promising but it has not fully been exploited yet. Besides improvements on the technological side, accurate models of the battery should be found to allow the realization of Battery Management Systems with advanced functions. This achievement may extend the battery exploitation to its best. The paper describes the experimental set-up and the model parameter identification process, and discusses the identified parameters and the model validation tests. The comparison between model simulations and experiments shows that the model is rather accurate for low-current rates, but it loses accuracy and it is not able to reproduce with fidelity the battery behavior at low states of charge or at high current rates. Further research efforts and refinements of the model are necessary to make available a sodium–nickel chloride battery model accurate in any operating condition.