Lithium-ion batteries are attractive for vehicle electrification or grid modernization applications. In these applications, battery packs are required to have multiple-cell configurations and battery management system to operate properly and safely. Here, a useful equivalent circuit model was developed to simulate the spontaneous transient balancing currents among parallel strings in a battery system. The simulation results were validated with experimental data to illustrate the accuracy and validity of the model predictions. Understanding the transient behavior of such cell and string balancing in a parallel circuit configuration is very important to assess the impacts of current fluctuation and cell variability on a battery system's performance, regarding durability, reliability, safety, abuse tolerance and failure prevention, including possible short circuit or open circuit conditions. Additional features and advantages, including the ability to assessing impacts on the performance of the string assemblies from string swapping or cell/module replacement in the strings, could be realized to aid battery management, maintenance and repair. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.