Determination of cycling frequency with the highest impact on lifetime of Super Capacitor

Super Capacitors (SCs) are appealing in industrial application for energy recovery (to replace mechanical energy storage like flywheels or springs). In some applications, the energy flowing back from the load is sinusoidal ripple currents. The lifetime performance of SCs in these applications is questionable and the frequency level which has the most impact on the lifetime need to be determined. As the threshold frequency differs for different SC cells, the determination of frequency that accelerates the aging process is a key factor for appropriate cell selection for these applications. In this study a method for threshold frequency determination is defined and then experiments are performed to study the impact of this frequency on the super capacitor aging. The result reveals that this low frequency current ripple for the selected SC cell creates aging mechanisms.