Automobile Battery
Introduction
Battery is one of the most important components of an automobile. Battery serves various
purposes from starting a vehicle to run a wide range of accessories. Lead acid type battery is
commonly used in an automobile because of several advantages.
Functions of Automobile Battery
➢ It helps to start the vehicle by supplying necessary current and voltage to the starter.
➢ It helps to produce the spark.
➢ Battery provides energy to lighting system used in automobile.
➢ It also helps to run the different accessories.
➢ In modern vehicles battery also helps to run different sensors, actuators, and control
unit.
Construction of Battery
Lead Acid Battery consists of Plates, Separator, Electrolyte, Hard Plastic with a hard rubber
case. A lead acid battery consists of a negative electrode made of spongy or porous lead. The
lead is porous to facilitate the formation and dissolution of lead. The positive electrode
consists of lead oxide. Both electrodes are immersed in an electrolytic solution of sulfuric
acid and water. In case the electrodes meet each other through physical movement of the
battery or through changes in thickness of the electrodes, an electrically insulating, but
chemically permeable membrane separates the two electrodes. This membrane also
prevents electrical shorting through the electrolyte.
The hard plastic case is one cell. A single cell store typically 2.1V. Due to this reason, A 12V
lead acid battery consists of 6 cells and provide 6 x 2.1V/Cell = 12.6V typically.
Working of Lead Acid Battery
Lead Acid battery makes use of electro-chemical reaction for its operation. There are huge
chemical process involved in Lead Acid battery’s charging and discharging condition. The
diluted sulfuric acid H2SO4 molecules break into two parts when the acid dissolves. It will
create positive ions 2H+ and negative ions SO4-. Two electrodes are connected as plates,
Anode and Cathode. Anode catches the negative ions and cathode attracts the positive ions.
This bonding in Anode and SO4- and Cathode with 2H+ interchange electrons and which
further react with the H2O or with the water (Diluted sulfuric acid, Sulfuric Acid + Water).
Battery capacity
Battery capacity is defined as the total amount of electricity generated due to
electrochemical reactions in the battery and is expressed in ampere hours. For example, a
constant discharge current of 1 C (5 A) can be drawn from a 5 Ah battery for 1 hour. For a
given cell type the behavior of cells of different capacities with the same C ratio value is
similar. The energy that a battery can deliver in the discharge process is called the capacity
of the battery. The unit of the capacity is “ampere hour” and is briefly expressed by the letters
“Ah.” The capacity of a battery depends on the following factors:
➢ Number and size of plates in a cell.
➢ Density of electrolyte
Lead-Acid Battery Discharging
When the battery is discharging (i.e., supplying a current), atoms from the spongy lead on
the negative plates combine with sulfate molecules to form lead sulfate and hydrogen. As
always, electrons are left behind on the negative plates so that they maintain a negative
potential. The hydrogen released in the electrolyte combines with the lead peroxide on the
positive plate, removing electrons from the plate to keep a positive potential. The
combination of lead peroxide and hydrogen at the positive electrode produces water and
lead sulfate. The water dilutes the electrolyte, making it a weaker solution, and the lead
sulfate that is produced at both positive and negative plates tends to fill the pores of the
active material. Both these effects (dilution of the electrolyte and formation of lead sulfate)
render each cell less efficient and eventually cause the battery output voltage to fall.
Charging process of battery
When the battery is recharged, a current (conventional direction) is made to flow into the
positive electrode of each cell. This current causes the lead sulfate at the negative electrode
to recombine with hydrogen ions, thus re-forming sulfuric acid in the electrolyte and Spongy
lead on the negative plates. Also, the lead sulfate on the positive electrodes recombines with
water to regenerate lead peroxide on the positive plates and sulfuric acid in the electrolyte.
The result of charging the cell is that the electrodes are re-formed, and the electrolyte is
returned to its original strength.
Battery Charging methods
➢ Constant Voltage
A constant voltage charger is basically a DC power supply which in its simplest form
may consist of a step-down transformer from the mains with a rectifier to provide the
DC voltage to charge the battery. The lead-acid cells used for cars and backup power
systems typically use constant voltage chargers.
➢ Constant Current
Constant current chargers vary the voltage they apply to the battery to maintain a
constant current flow, switching off when the voltage reaches the level of a full charge.
This design is usually used for nickel-cadmium and nickel-metal hydride cells or
batteries. Constant Current charger usually employ a rectifier to convert AC to DC and
a rheostat to adjust current flow to the battery.
➢ Quick Charging
In this method, the battery is supplied with the high current as much as 100 amperes
for 6 volt battery and 50 amperes for 12 volt battery for short period of time. It takes
around an hour to charge the battery by this method.
➢ Pulsed Charge
Pulsed chargers feed the charge current to the battery in pulses. The charging rate
(based on the average current) can be precisely controlled by varying the width of the
pulses, typically about one second. It is also claimed that this method can reduce
unwanted chemical reactions at the electrode surface such as gas formation, crystal
growth and passivation.
Care of Lead-Acid Batteries
➢ The level of the electrolyte in each cell should be checked regularly, and distilled water
added as necessary to keep the top of the plates up to the marked level.
➢ Battery terminals should be kept clean and lightly coated with petroleum jelly to avoid
corrosion.
➢ In cold weather, batteries should always be maintained in a nearly fully charged
condition to avoid freezing.
➢ Do not allow the battery to stand idle for long time, this may cause inactivation of the
battery cell.
➢ Do not charge the battery with very high rate of current because high rate of charging
causes high temperature to rise and excessive gassing, resulting in heavy loss of water.
➢ The battery cell should be charged gently at normal rate so that there will be no chance
of immediate gassing and temperature rise over 40 degrees.
