The recent rapid adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) is creating new load characteristics in the distribution system, and in particular, the widespread use of single-phase charging methods is exacerbating phase load imbalances, leading to voltage unbalance issues. Such voltage imbalances can undermine the stability of the distribution system and may cause side effects such as reduced power quality and shortened equipment lifespan. This study proposes a smart distribution panel system that can detect voltage imbalance issues caused by uneven electric vehicle charging loads in real time and actively compensate for them. The proposed system aims to contribute to the stability and power quality improvement of the distribution network by integrating a load balancing algorithm with inter-phase voltage monitoring functionality.

As electric vehicles (EVs) are rapidly adopted worldwide, large numbers are now transported by sea on dedicated car carriers. With this trend, concerns are increasing about fires and explosions caused by battery thermal runaway during marine transport, while existing SOC limits before loading remain largely empirical. This study experimentally investigates gas generation and explosion characteristics of EV lithium-ion cells under thermal runaway conditions representative of enclosed vehicle decks. We identify and quantify the main off-gas components and clarify the flammability behavior and explosion limits of key combustible species. The results provide basic data for assessing EV battery accidents at sea and support the development of safer ventilation and gas-management strategies for ships.

A large number of lithium-ion batteries are arranged in series and parallel in battery packs, such as those in electric vehicles or energy storage systems. As battery packs age, their output power and energy density drop because of voltage deviation, constant and non-uniform exposure to abnormal environments, and increased contact resistance between batteries; this reduces application system efficiency. Despite the balancing circuit and logic of the battery management system, the output of the battery pack is concentrated in the most severely aged unit cell and the output is frequently limited by power derating. In this study, we implemented a cell imbalance detection algorithm and selected parameters to detect a sudden decrease in battery pack output. In addition, we propose a method to increase efficiency by applying the measured testing values considering the operating conditions and abnormal conditions of the battery pack.

The lithium-ion battery pack of an electric vehicle (EV) deserves to be considered for an alternative use within smart-grid infrastructure. Despite the long automotive service life, EV batteries retain over 70~80% of their initial capacity. These battery packs must be managed for their reliability and safety. Therefore, a battery management system (BMS) should use specific algorithms to measure and estimate the status of the battery. Most importantly, the BMS of a grid-connected energy storage system (ESS) must ensure that the lithium-ion battery does not catch fire or explode due to an internal short from uncontrolled dendrite growth. In other words, the BMS of a lithium-ion battery pack should be capable of detecting the battery’s status based on the electrochemical reaction continuously until the end of the battery’s lifespan. In this paper, we propose a new protection algorithm for a dendritic lithium battery. The proposed algorithm has applied a parameter from battery pack aging results and has control power managing.

In this study, to increase output of road piezoelectric energy harvester, it was made into rack type in which many piezoelectric materials can be installed and load transfer device of the leverage type to transfer vehicle load was made. By paving it in the road, the output characteristics depending on vehicle load and speed were evaluated. Changing vehicle load, harvester output characteristics depending on speed changes were evaluated at the interval of 10 km/h from 10 km/h to 100 km/h. Also, by making a wireless switch and sending wireless signal with output of rack type harvester, whether to receive it was evaluated by distance. It was checked that all switches work up to front-to-back 100 m from harvester.

A road energy harvester was designed and fabricated to convert mechanical energy from the vehicle load to electrical energy. The road energy harvester is composed of 20 piezoelectric materials. This study attempted to evaluate output depending on pavement materials when paving road piezoelectric energy harvester in the road. Harvester is the bender type and is the method of supporting the both ends of piezoelectric material and applying the load in the middle part. Harvester was paved in the type paved with asphalt, type paved with cement and in the exposed type not covering the top of harvester. The output characteristics were compared and evaluated depending on changes in vehicle load and vehicle speed changes. As vehicles, truck (11.9 ton), SUV(1.6 ton) and sedan (1.5 ton) were used and the output characteristics when driving at the interval of 10 km/h from 10 km/h to 100 km/h were evaluated.

Since LEDs (light emitting diodes) have many advantages as a light source in vehicle headlamp, such as good reliability, energy and space saving, and flexible headlamp design. On the other hand, the dependence of its performance and life on temperature have great influence on its practical use. In this study, design and fabrication of heat sink for vehicle LED headlamp were performed using thermally-conductive plastics. This study focused on the effective heat sink structure with limited space in the vehicle LED headlamp. We designed two different prototype of heat sink by thermal simulation using SolidWorks program, which had excellent temperature characteristics. The two different prototype of heat sink were fabricated by injection molding with thermally-conductive plastics. The results showed that LED Tj (junction temperature) of sample B (model 1) and sample C (model 1, 2) was below then 165℃ when applying the thermally-conductive plastics in heat sink of vehicle LED headlamp.

Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUV``s) provide an important means for collecting detailed scientific information from the ocean depths. The hull resistance of an AUV is an important factor in determining the power requirements and range of the vehicle. This paper describes a design method that uses Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) to determine the hull resistance of an AUV under development. The CFD results reveal the distribution of the hydrodynamic values (velocity, pressure, etc.) of an AUV with a ducted propeller. This paper also discusses the optimization of the AUV hull profile to reduce the total resistance. This paper demonstrates that shape optimization in a conceptual design is possible by using a commercial CFD package. Optimum design work to minimize the drag force of an AUV was carried out, for a given object function and constraints.

A road energy harvester was designed and fabricated to convert mechanical energy from the vehicle load to electrical energy. The road energy harvester is composed of 16 piezoelectric cantilevers. We fabricated prototypes using a vehicle load transfer mechanism. Applying a vehicle load transfer mechanism rather than directly installing energy harvesters under roads decreases the area of road construction and allows more energy harvesters to be installed on the side of the road. The power generation amount with respect to the vehicular velocity change was assessed by installing the vehicle load transfer mechanism form and underground form. The energy harvester installed in the underground form generated power of 4.52mJ at the vehicular velocity of 50 km/h. Also, power generation of the energy harvester installed in the vehicle load transfer mechanism form was 48.65mJ at the vehicular velocity of 50 km/h.

A road energy harvester was designed and fabricated to convert mechanical energy from the vehicle load to electrical energy. The road energy harvester is composed of 24 piezoelectric cantilevers and a vehicle load transfer mechanism. Applying a vehicle load transfer mechanism rather than directly installing energy harvesters under roads decreases the area of road construction and allows more energy harvesters to be installed on the side of the road. The power generation amount with respect to the vehicular velocity change was assessed by installing the vehicle load transfer mechanism and the energy harvester in the form of speed bumps and underground. The energy harvester installed in a speed bump form generated power of 7.61 ㎽at the vehicular velocity of 20 km/h. Also, power generation of the energy harvester installed in the underground form was 63.9 ㎽at the vehicular velocity of 28 km/h. Although the number of piezoelectric cantilevers was reduced by 1/3 to 24 in comparison to the previous research results with 72 piezoelectric cantilevers, similar power generation characteristic value was obtained within the vehicular velocity of 20 km/h by altering the vehicle load transfer mechanism and cantilever vibration method.

Piezoelectric energy harvester (PEH) as a box type was fabricated in order to harvest mechanical energy imparted to roadways from passing vehicles and convert it into electricity. The PEH was composed of 72 piezoelectric cantilevers with 9 springs with elasticity stick to a bottom of the PEH. For the single piezoelectric cantilever, when a single push with approximately 5 mm displacement was incident to it, power of 0.355 mW was produced at 100 kΩ. It is found that the power from the single piezoelectric cantilever increases when spring constant is high. We investigated power of PEH when the moving vehicle passes in it. Power was increased with increasing vehicle speed. When vehicle speed is 30 km/h, power is 20.6 mW.