Proceedings of the 2009 ASEE North Midwest Sectional Conference

A Method to measure battery Impedance using operational amplifier

circuit in electrical engineering lab curriculum
Prakash Ranganathan
1
, Saleh Faruque
2
, Richard Schultz
3

Department of Electrical Engineering,
University of North Dakota, Grand Forks
email: prakashranganathan@mail.und.edu

Abstract The paper introduces a novel circuit to measure and study the battery
impedance (Z
batt
) behaviour of the commercially available AA batteries. The frequency
response of the battery under test is analyzed over several kilohertz. This paper studies
the construction and analysis of an instrument that will measure the impedance of a
battery (Z
batt
) as a function of frequency (Hz). A standard 1.5 volt (AA) and 9 volt battery
will be tested. The proposed instrument allows us to model and measure the battery
impedance (Z
batt
) mathematically to better understand its properties over time.

1- Introduction

Battery is a complex electrochemical device. The performance of battery and its lifetime
can be extended and improved by studying the characteristics of its impedance. At
present, there are two simple ways of measuring impedance of the battery: cause a signal
to be generated in the battery by pulse thereby discharging the battery or by applying
an AC current signal [1]. The proposed instrument calculates the cell impedance by
measuring the AC root-mean square (rms) voltage drops due to a measured ac rms
current signal.

II- Experimental setup:

Step I
The first step of the experiment set-up involves the construction of an instrument, as
shown in the following Figure.1. The instrument will be constructed using the
TL071(Typical 741) operational amplifier (Figure.2) powered by a 12 volts and with
two matching resistors R
1
=R
2
=1k . A DC battery will then be connected in series with
R
1
. A multimeter can then be connected across R
1
to measure the AC voltage across R
1
.
In addition to existing meter, an another multimeter (voltmeter) can be placed
across the battery in order to measure the AC voltage across the battery. It is important to
makesure that the multimeter isin AC mode to measure the root mean square (RMS)
voltage.




Finally, an input sinusoidal signal (V
in
) is applied to the proposed circuit.





Proceedings of the 2009 ASEE North Midwest Sectional Conference

R1
1.0k
R2
1.0k
U1
OPAMP_5T_VIRTUAL
V1ac
1 V
1kHz
0Deg
V2ac
1.5 V
XMM1
Vbatt
XMM2


















Figure 1:The Impedance Measurement Circuit








Figure 2: TL 071 Pinout Diagram

Theory

The above operational amplifier circuit uses the following equation to calculate the
battery impedance.
1
1
2
) (
R
V
V
Z
batt
(1)
where.,
V
2
= voltage across the battery under test
V
1
= voltage across the resistor R
1

Z
(batt)
= Impedance of the battery under test

The above equation was utilized throughout the paper to calculate its impedance (Z
batt
) of
the battery at given frequencies

Step II
The second step of the proposed instrument set-up, includes the actual measurement of
the impedance(Z
meas
) of a battery. The input voltage V
in
should be setto 5V
p-p
at a

Proceedings of the 2009 ASEE North Midwest Sectional Conference

frequency of 1kHz to measure the AC voltage across the resistor (V
1
) and the AC voltage
across the battery (V
2
) should be measured. Using these measured values, the battery
impedance (Z
batt)
can then be calculated using equation 1. This process should be
repeated for frequencies of 1kHz, 2kHz, 4kHz, 8kHz, 16kHz. A plot can then be
constructed showing the impedance of the battery as a function of frequency.


Step III Results

The commercial batteries are tested over a wide range of frequencies and its response is
plotted using the data in the following table:

Table 1: Duracell 1.5V (AA) Measurements










Table 2: Rayovac 9-volt battery Measurements











Figure 3: 1.5 V Battery Impedance vs.frequency










Frequenc
y (kHz)
V
1p-p
(V
rms)
V
2p-p
(mV
rms)

Z
batt

( )
1 1.789
6
.94 .526
2 1.786 .85 .476
4 1.786 .82 .4591
8 1.787 .80 .4476
16 1.788 .77 .4306

Frequency
(kHz)
V
1p-p
(V-
rms)
V
2p-p
(mV
rms)

Z
batt

( )
1 1.05 3.10 2.95
2 1.05 2.72 2.59
4 1.044 2.34 2.24
8 1.043 2.04 1.96
16 1.045 1.81 1.773

1.5 V o lt Du r ace ll Bat t e r y
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0 5 10 15 20
Fr e q u e n cy
B
a
t
t
e
r
y

I
m
p
e
d
a
n
c
e

Proceedings of the 2009 ASEE North Midwest Sectional Conference


Figure 4: Impedance Vs frequency - 9V Battery















III. Impedance as an indicator:

Measure of impedance could be an indicator for battery aging. Battery cells are
categorized as weak, abnormal and normal based on their percentage change in its
impedance over its life period. IEEE defines that all battery cells must deliver 90% of
rated capacity upon delivery unless otherwise specified to account for this [2].

Conclusion: Promising Investigation into multiple frequency testing of battery
impedance has been underway for sometime now. This approach requires a relatively
accurate model of a cell and should be able to indicate what areas of the battery
construction and chemical processes are varying over time. By knowing these
parameters, it is expected to learn what processes are showing signs of aging, defect,
overstress or damage. To aid this analysis, this paper illustrates one such model for
measuring the impedance of the battery.

The behavior of commercially available AA batteries are studied by measuring the
battery impedance under test using the proposed op-amp circuit and its response over
wide frequencies has been analyzed. The proposed circuit can be transformed into an
battery measuring instrument.

Acknowledgement: The author(s) would like to thank the students in the EE 309 Junior
Laboratory of Spring 2008 semester for collecting the data, since the data illustrated in
the Table 1 and 2 are the averaged response gathered by them, as part of a exploration of
a new lab added in EE 309 Junior Laboratory at University of North Dakota, Grand
Forks, ND.





9 V o lt Rayo vac Bat t e r y
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
3.5
0 5 10 15 20
Fr e q u e n cy
B
a
t
t
e
r
y

I
m
p
e
d
a
n
c
e

Proceedings of the 2009 ASEE North Midwest Sectional Conference

REFERENCES:
1. Willihnganz and Rohner, Battery Impedance :Farads, Milliohms, Microhenrys,
AIEE Chemical Industry Committee, Paper #59-823, 1959.
2. IEEE, IEEE -485 Recommended practice for sizing Lead acid batteries for
Stationary applications, 1995.


BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION
PRAKASH RANGANATHAN- is currently a faculty member in the Department of Electrical Engineering
at the University of North Dakota - Grand Forks. Ranganathans research area and teaching interests are in
Electric Circuits, Sensor Networks and Engineering Education.

RICHARD SCHULTZ - is currently the Professor and Chair and Associate Professor in the Department of
Electrical Engineering at UND. His research interest are in Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), Digital
Signal and Image Processing, Embedded Systems, and Engineering Entrepreneurship.

Saleh Faruque is currently an Associate professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering at UND.
His research interests are in Electronics and Communication Engineering.