Faculty of Engineering & Industrial Sciences

Higher Education Division

Electric Vehicle Research:

Battery Technologies
Swinburne University of Technology is in the Top 400 Universities in the world and ranked 3 in
Victoria, according to Academic Ranking of World Universities 2012. Swinburnes research success
has grown significantly over the past 5 years with research impact (citations per paper) growing by
11% in period 2006-2010, outstripping the G08 and ATNs rate of growth by more than double.
Swinburne University of Technologys Electric Vehicle Research Group is one of the leading groups in
the world in Electric Vehicle (EV) research, development, policy and education, with the vision to
transform society by significantly greening personal transport.
The Electric Vehicle Research Group consists of 20 Academic and Research staff and 20 PhD
students whose interdisciplinary research activities include:
Research, Development and Industry Engagement (60% activities):
-

Lightweighting

Battery Management

Drivetrain and controls

Energy Grid including smarts

Vehicle architecture and Design

Vehicle to Vehicle and Vehicle to Infrastructure Communication

Consumer Behaviour and Public Policy (10% activities)

New Business Models and Entrepreneurship (10% activities)
EV Promotion, Training and Education to enterprises, schools & community (20% activities)
Battery Technologies
Batteries hold the key to success for the EV revolution and are the subject of intense research both
publicly and privately. Higher capacity and longer life batteries are coming out regularly and
manufacturers need to determine the ways to charge them and to predict the battery life.
EVRG research in battery technologies include:

Battery modelling

Battery capacity estimation

Energy management systems for electric

cars
Battery charging

Influence of battery charging on power grid

with the integration of renewable energy
sources

For further information telephone 1300 275 794 or see swinburne.edu.au

Swinburne has excellent battery testing facilities:

Xiaopeng Chen, W.X. Shen, Tu Vo, Zhenwei Cao, Ajay

Kapoor, An Overview of Lithium-ion Batteries for
Electric Vehicles, The 10th IPEC 2012, 12-14
December 2012 in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam,
accepted for presentation.

The EVRG is made up of high profiles

researchers working on different aspects of
battery technologies for EVs:
Temperature and humidifier chamber:
Dr Weixiang Shen: Lead researcher on battery
charging / discharging. New algorithms which
probe the current behaviour and past history of
each cell provide faster charging and longer
battery life.

Thermal image camera:

Professor Cuie Wen and Dr Akbar Ramdhani:

Lead researchers into new generation Li-air, Lisulphur
batteries
to
provide
dramatic
improvement of up to an order of magnitude in
energy density through nano structured
cathodes, anodes and improved electrolytes.
Dr Mehran Ektesabi and Professor Zhihong
Man: Lead researchers into energy saving
control systems for electric vehicles.

Swinburnes EVRG also has a strong track

record in battery research and has published
many papers in high-quality journals with high
citation rates. A sample of publications follows:
-

Smolenaers, S; Ektesabi, M. Battery-to-wheel

efficiency of an induction motor battery electric
vehicle with CVT and adaptive control. Proceedings
th
4 ICSAT 2012, Melbourne, Australia, pp. 229-234.

Shen, W; Vo, T. T; Kapoor, A. Charging algorithms of

th
lithium-ion batteries: an overview. Proceedings, 7
IEEE ICIEA 2012, Singapore, July 2012.

Chen, X; Shen, W; Cao, Z; Kapoor, A. A Comparative

Study of Observer Design Techniques for State of
Charge Estimation in Electric Vehicles. Proceedings,
7th IEEE ICIEA 2012, Singapore, July 2012.

Chen, X; Shen, W; Cao, Z; Kapoor, A. Sliding Mode

Observer for State of Charge Estimation Based on
Battery Equivalent Circuit in Electric Vehicles.
Australian Journal of Electrical & Electronics
Engineering, Vol 9, No 4., 2012.

Vo, T; Shen, W.X; Kapoor, A. Experimental

Comparison of Charging Algorithms for a Lithium-ion
Battery The 10th IPEC 2012, 12-14 Dec 2012 in Ho
Chi Minh City, Vietnam, accepted for presentation.

Current PhD students include:

Tu Thanh Vo.
Research Topic: Battery charger algorithm
and hardware implementation for electric
vehicles.
Xiaopeng Chen.
Research Topic: Battery capacity estimation
for electric vehicles.
Parisa Amiribavandpour.
Research Topic: Modeling of batteries for
electric vehicles.
Fengxian He.
Research
Topic:
Battery
energy
management systems for electric vehicles.
Marziehalsadat Barghamadi.
Research Topic: Improving the lithium-ion
batteries using metal carbon composites.
For more information contact:
Professor Ajay Kapoor
Deputy Dean
Head of the Electric Vehicle Research Group
Faculty of Engineering & Industrial Sciences
Phone: 03 9214 8202
Email: akapoor@swin.edu.au

www.swinburne.edu.au/engineering/electric-vehicle/ | CRICOS Provider 00111D