CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

1.1 SCOPE

In this seminar , a quick overview is provided on the historical background, technological issues,
and engineering applications of inductive power transfer in transportation and henceforth
describes about roadway challenges.

1.2 BACKGROUND AND MOTIVATION

It was almost 200 years ago that the concept of Inductive Power Transfer was first proposed. The
technique was simple: a wire carrying an electric current produces a magnetic field around the
wire (Ampere’s Law1 ); a coil intersecting a magnetic field produces a voltage in that coil
(Faraday’s Law2 ); so two loosely coupled coils can transfer power by passing a current through
one of them and taking power from the voltage produced in the other. However, technology
limitations of the day resulted in unsuccessful experiments and myths developed that to transfer
power wirelessly was in fact impossible. Today, due to advances in materials science,
semiconductors and power electronics, it is now accepted that it is possible to wirelessly transfer
power, and there is ample evidence of charging technologies for small devices such as phones,
electric tooth brushes and the like. However these are all low power devices coupling over small
distances; higher power systems have lacked credibility until more recent times.

Conductive or cabled systems are not always ideal for EV charging. Rain, ice, snow, and
extreme heat and cold present challenges with plugs and cables while the same cables are at risk
of vandalism and theft due to the high value of copper. Vehicles charged inductively only need
to be parked over an inductive pad for charging to occur. However, to be practical for automotive
use, IPT hardware must be compact and light weight, highly efficient, tolerant of vertical airgap
spacing and horizontal misalignment, as well as being easy and convenient to use

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1.3 REPORT OUTLINE
Chapter 2 gives a review of the main literature which serves as the base for the seminar
Chapter 3 gives a brief outline of wireless charging system.
Chapter 4 explains in detail about magnetic circuits for powering vehicles.
Chapter 5 explains about pad system for ev charging system and explains in detail about circular,
polarized, double d ,multicoil pads etc.
Chapter 6 explains about the dynamic charging concept.
Chapter 7 covers the conclusion where the research and development in this report is
summarized.

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 CHAPTER 2
LITERATURE REVIEW

Transfer of power wirelessly was discovered and applied by Nikola Tesla. He invented the
concept of WPT. This was further improved by other scientists and it was implemented in many
applications. Applications like wireless mobile charging, electromagnetic toothbrush, electric
vehicles etc., were invented. Electric vehicles were major breakthrough in the fields of
Automobile and Transportation. Efficient transmission over large distances is possible with this
approach; however, complicated pointing and tracking mechanisms are needed to maintain
proper alignment between moving transmitters and/or receivers. Various non-contacting methods
of plug-in electric vehicle charging are either under development or now deployed as aftermarket
options in the light-duty automotive market. Wireless power transfer (WPT) is now the accepted
term for wireless charging and is used synonymously for inductive power transfer and magnetic
resonance coupling. WPT technology is in its infancy; standardization is lacking, especially on
interoperability, the methods employed for power flow regulation. EV charging is considered as
a big load to the utility. The worst case if all EVs are charged at the same time. However, this
scenario will be unlikely to happen because of many factors. One of the factors is that the
number of charging station is limited. As for the impact of EV battery chargers on the power
supply system, it depends on the technology of the chargers.Today, smart battery chargers are
available which can interactively communicate with the utility system in order to receive and
send information about the state of charge, energy availability, tariffs and management data in
general. Such designs have resulted in reduction of harmonic distortion and power factor
improvement.

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 CHAPTER 2

WIRELESS CHARGING SYSTEM

2.1 EVOLUTION

Experience in IPT with FA systems has led to the development of IPT technologies comprising
power supplies, elongated tracks with litz wire cables, pickup systems and controllers. High
power supplies, in such applications, produce a track current at typically 20 kHz which produces
a magnetic field that can be intercepted by a pick-up coil to produce the required voltage. This
coil is resonated with a tuning capacitor to increase the power transfer and controlled with a
pick-up controller to give an independent power supply suitable for a variety of tasks - for
example, driving one or more motors.

The elongated track wire produces a magnetic field along the track which the pick-ups must
follow precisely. Typical IPT systems take power levels, off a multi-pickup 2-wire track, of a
few kW. For an EV charger the power of a single pick-up might be 3- 20kW, and for a dynamic,
charging-on-the-move situation, it may be 20-30kW.

In these situations the present track systems would struggle to transfer enough power over the
air-gaps and tolerances required.

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2.2 SINGLE PHASE SYSTEMS

Fig 2.2 A single-phase wireless charger schematic.

Mains voltage input is filtered and controlled to ensure it operates with near unity power factor
using controlled full-wave rectification. An H-bridge then drives a controlled current in the
primary pad inductance (L1) by controlling the switching voltage across the primary side of a
transformer at a fixed frequency via a DC blocking capacitor, Cb, which prevents DC current
flow in the transformer primary. The combination of both Cb and the leakage inductance of the
transformer (Lb) may be represented as an isolated power supply inductor (Lp) whose value is
designed identical to that of L1. This inductor is tuned with capacitor C1 and L1 at the nominal
frequency of the track current, creating an LCL circuit which naturally filters the switching
voltages of the inverter and creates an ideal sinusoidal current in L1. This primary pad is
magnetically coupled to a secondary pad L2, with a mutual inductance M, and couples a
frequency and current dependent voltage into it.

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The secondary pad, L2, is tuned with capacitor C2 again at the frequency of the current in the
primary pad, and this produces a controlled current source whose output is rectified low pass
filtered and regulated to obtain the output voltage Vout across the vehicle battery.
Sensors are used to measure the battery voltage and current as required for the charging
process. A vehicle CANBus interface is connected to the BMS and Electronic Control Unit
(ECU) for control and feedback purposes.

2.3 ELEMENTS OF IPT SYSTEM

A simple IPT system comprises of :

1) A power supply that takes electric power from a utility or a battery;

2) An elongate track that is driven by the power supply where by current in the track causes
a magnetic field that follows the track;

3) Pickups on or along the track that intercept some of the magnetic field and convert that
intercepted field to controlled electricity;

4) Electrical loads that may be driven by that electricity.

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2.3 IPT SYSTEM COMPONENTS FOR A SINGLE PHASE TRACK SYSTEM:

Fig 2.3 IPT System Components for a single phase track system

An IPT system comprises three main components that are shown for a single phase system in
Fig. 2.3.

IPT power supply typically operate from 3 phase utility to produce current in track at desired
frequency range 10-40 kHz that drives a current (I1) in an inductive track. The parallel
compensation capacitor C1 allows the track current, , to resonate increasing the magnetic field
strength in the vicinity of the track, this minimises the VA rating of the power supply for a given
load .

The track and Pick Up (PU) act as a loosely coupled transformer enabling power transfer over
relatively large air gaps. The IPT PU inductance, L2, is tuned for resonance with C2, this
compensates for the relatively large PU leakage inductance.

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The voltage across C2 is rectified and a switched mode controller control power flow from
pickup coil to produce stable DC power source as required for motor controller or other loads
,enables the resonant tank to operate at a defined quality factor, Q, to boost power transfer. The
power output of an IPT system (Pout) is quantified by the open circuit voltage (Voc) and short
circuit current (Isc) of the PU as well as the quality factor .

2.4 CALCULATIONS:

The power output of an IPT system (Pout) is quantified by the open circuit voltage (Voc) and
short circuit current (Isc) of the PU & quality factor Q.

Psu : Uncompensated power

W : Angular frequency of the track current I1

M : Mutual inductance between the track and PU

The performance parameters of IPT pickup :

(open circuit voltage induced in pickup coil at frequency (w) due to

primary track current (I1))

(max current from Voc limited by impedance of pickup coil inductance

wL2).

Without compensation, max pickup is Su/2 which is not sufficient.Therefore compensation with
capacitors is done.

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This power equation may be written as above.

As shown in the final expression, the first two terms are the input voltage and current, the third
term is the magnetic coupling factor and the final term is the secondary circuit . The power that
an IPT system can produce is therefore dependent on the input Voltage-Ampere product (VA) to
the primary pad, quality of the magnetic circuit (k), and the quality of the secondary electric
circuit (Q). Thus elegant design of the magnetic circuit to ensure that k is both high and has
minimum variation within expected operational changes in air-gap and lateral offset of the
ground and vehicle pads is the best way to improve power transfer. This means that less work
has to be done by the primary and secondary electronics to achieve a given power transfer, and
consequently there is less loss (meaning higher efficiency).

Early IPT systems used relatively small air-gaps where it was easy to get high coupling factors.
More challenging IPT systems (such as those inherent in stationary charging and dynamically-
powering of EV’s) have larger air-gaps where coupling factors can be small and the inductances
vary with misalignment. Here tuning is difficult and therefore secondary circuit values
necessarily are restricted otherwise secondary losses increase and the system becomes sensitive
to any mistuning.

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 CHAPTER 3

MAGNETIC CIRCUITS FOR POWERING ELECTRIC VEHICLES

3.1 ROADWAY PAD DEVELOPMENT

These systems use two wireless pads – one on the underside of the vehicle and the other on the
road surface underneath the vehicle – that are magnetically coupled to each other. This wireless
power transfer uses inductive coupling under resonance with coils or multiples of coils with high
native quality factor (QL). The coupling is a geometrical property of the magnetic and electrical
circuits: better pads achieve coupling depending on their design and a poor design can never be
adequately compensated but leads inexorably to a poor IPT system. Early commercial designs
were developed in the 90’s and have been improved over the past 20 years. This inductive
coupling is known in the academic literature to be identical to strongly coupled magnetic
resonance.

For efficient charging with minimal field leakage the car must be parked or positioned so that the
two pads are in relatively close proximity to each other. Under these conditions a recognition
system allows the two pads to communicate with each other such that ultimately the pad on the
ground is ‘fired up’ and energy is transferred from the ground pad to the on-vehicle pad and
thence to the battery. When the battery is charged the system disconnects; both the ground pad
and the vehicle pad are shut down.

Wireless charging via IPT can only occur if several conditions are met simultaneously:

– The pads must be compatible with each other

– The pads must operate at the same nominal frequency
– The position of the car must have the on vehicle pad within the relative x, y, z,
error that is allowable for this pad pair.

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 – The power ratings and connections of the two pads must be designed to be
compatible and at similar rating – a 100kW bus primary charger cannot be used
with a 2kW secondary car battery connection with an expectation of high
efficiency and low field emissions, although a 20kW primary system may be able
to achieve good results with the same 2kW secondary if this is considered at the
design stage.

If these conditions are met, the charging pad on the ground can be turned on slowly and
following reasonably stringent frequency and power checks the battery will begin to charge
under the control of a Battery Management System (BMS) until the BMS indicates that no more
energy is required and the BMS shuts the system down – or the car drives off and leaves the
system to shut itself down. Any premature disconnection is essentially harmless with wireless
charging as it does not cause physical damage. Furthermore the system automatically shuts down
if there is an undesirable change in coupling between primary and secondary pads such as
vehicle movement resulting in severe misalignment.

3.2 REQUIREMENTS :

The IPT charging system for an EV in its simplest form involves two pads: one travels
permanently with the vehicle while the other may be duplicated and shared by other vehicles in a
multiplicity of places most commonly in a home garage and at a place of work.

Access to the pads may be omnidirectional where the vehicle approaches the pad from any
direction, or more commonly from a preferred direction where charging is only possible from
one direction. The ground pad would usually be connected to a power supply that is driven by a
utility. The communications protocol that controls the charging process will allow matched and
mismatched pads to charge providing the nominal frequency is identical and the design supports
charging.

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3.3 MATERIALS HANDLING WITH MONORAILS:

In the majority of materials handing applications, the pick-up is mounted on a moving unit
(bogie) and its output power is subsequently converted to a form useful to drive one or more
motors that enable lifting operations or drive a travelling motor to move the bogie along a
primary track.

In order to save cost and ensure that long track lengths can be driven, the track in a materials
handling application has no magnetic material to enhance the power transfer. As such each
coupled pick-up uses magnetic material such as ferrite to improve the local coupling and hence
the power transfer.

For monorail systems the movement of the system is highly constrained and consequently the
magnetic material can be designed to extend partly into and around the track wires to improve
the coupling.

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Fig.3.3(a),(b) E and S pickups.

The majority of such industrial systems use U, H, or E shaped pick-ups as these pick-up shapes
were readily available and easy to fit into existing structures. With the advent of 3D finite
element modeling new pick-up shapes have been investigated. Of these the S-pick-up shape
(shown alongside the traditional E shaped pickup in Figure 3.3(a),(b) has been shown to have
significantly higher power transfer capability than either the conventional E or U shapes (by a
factor of 2 for the same volume of ferrite as the E pick-up). Uptake by industry of the S pick-up
has been slow because this design requires significant modification to the monorail support
system.

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 CHAPTER 4
PAD SYSTEM FOR EV CHARGING SYSTEMS

4.1 CIRCULAR (NON POLARIZED) PADS/COUPLERS:

In the early 2000’s, non-polarized magnetics normally in the shape of a circular design were the
most common topology used for EV charging – these are essentially derived from gapped pot
cores. New designs use ferrite disks and spokes and focus on optimizing the use of ferrite and its
layout.

The relationship between the size of a pad and its ability to throw flux to a secondary pad placed
above it has been explained using the concept of fundamental flux path height and is illustrated
in Fig 4.1(a).As shown, the fundamental flux path height (Pz) is proportional to half of the ferrite
length which is only one quarter of the pad diameter (Pd/4).

Fig4.1(a),(b) Circular Pads

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4.2 POLARIZED COUPLERS : SOLENOID

Fig 4.2 (a),(b),(c),(d) Polarized Pads

Polarized couplers were developed and used in the 90’s for monorail automatic guided vehicle
(AGV) applications and also used in early EV charging developments in people movers in New
Zealand. Consequently, various polarized solenoidal couplers were investigated and developed
as early as the mid 90’s with improvements in the mid 2000’s based on shaped bar ferrites.
Such pads have a defined north and south pole created by wrapping a flat coil around a flat
ferrite structure as shown in Fig4.2(a).

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As such these pads are essentially flattened solenoids. The distance between the end north
and south poles and the size of the poles are each carefully designed based on application. An
example of this is shown in Fig. 4.2(b) where two coils are used in parallel to direct the flux from
one pole though the ferrite core to the opposing pole. Alternative designs use a single coil if
appropriate. The natural field produced from this structure without any added aluminum or
copper shielding is shown in Fig 4.2(c).

As the centres of the poles are separated (approximately) by the length of the pad, these fields
are much higher than those of the nonpolarized designs, however flux is also naturally produced
on both sides of the pad which must be avoided. As such method 1 is used with an aluminium or
copper sheet covering the entire back structure (optionally another aluminum sheet covering the
upper coil portions may also be used as shown in Figs 4.2(a) and Fig 4.2(b)) so that only one side
of the end poles is exposed to help direct the flux towards the other magnetic pad resulting in
essentially single sided fields as shown finally in Fig 4.2(d). These shields prevent the flux from
exiting the back of the pad and presenting a problem within a vehicle or causing heating of
nearby objects.

4.3 DOUBLE D :

An improved single sided polarized flux pad topology is shown in Fig. 4.3(b). It has been labeled
as Double D (DD) because of the ideal D shape of the coils sitting on the ferrite base. There is no
reverse flux here as the ferrite operates as in method 2 to eliminate it by reflecting it upwards.
The improvement eliminates the unwanted rear flux paths by placing two coils above (rather than
around) the ferrite strips. The ferrite channels the main flux behind the coils and forces the flux
to exist on one side only. The height of the intra-pad flux is controlled by adjusting the width of
the coils in the shaded area of Fig. 4.3(b), to create a “flux pipe” between coils a and b .

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The fraction of flux that couples with the secondary pad is mutual flux , therefore the section of
the coil forming the flux pipe should be made as long as possible. Conversely, the remaining
length of the coil should be minimized to save copper and lower the coil resistance.

Fig 4.3 Circular coil with flux lines on the left and a polarized coupling system on the right.

4.4 MULTI COIL POLARISED PADS:

As a secondary (vehicle) pad, DD coils can only couple horizontal flux components when
centered on a primary, whereas circular pads can only couple vertical flux components when
centrally aligned. A new class of multi-coil pads were constructed which, similar to the
quadrature designs for materials handling application, are sensitive to both vertical and
horizontal flux components at any point in space (although because of their design they are also
polarized). In consequence they can be made completely interoperable any single, two-phase or
3-phase coupler.

Naturally these Multi-coil couplers can also be used as the primary (ground) pad and thereby
used to couple to any range of secondary (vehicle) pads. To achieve this flexibility in operation a
second synchronized power supply is required to enable the independent coils to be driven
separately, but then it enables simple circular, solenoid or DD pads to be used on the vehicle side
under stationary charging conditions.

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Under these conditions either polarized or non-polarized flux patterns could be created to suit the
secondary topology, and the driving mode can be modified based on the alignment of the vehicle
to improve the power transfer under misaligned conditions. These changes require no additional
electronics or passive tuning, but rather a variation in the phase of the driving currents under
software control.

When operated as a polarized coupler they achieve coupling factors similar to other polarized
pads (with a similar area) coupling to any given secondary, whereas when operated in circular
mode the coupling factors are similar to non-polarised pads. In either operation mode the quality
of the pad is naturally high given the pad generates single sided fields.

As such multi-coil pads can be used in a wide range of applications and offer a variety of
features not found anywhere else. As a secondary vehicle pad, these new pads use two
completely independent windings to capture all of the available flux in the secondary ferrite,
enabling much wider tolerance to lateral offsets than any other pad. The independent nature of
the windings means they can be separately tuned and regulated as required to extract power
without interfering with each other. Two of the most commonly known Multi-coil designs called
the DDQ and Bipolar are shown in Fig. 4.4.

These designs can be adjusted to fit a range of profiles, but for a given sized structure they
achieve almost identical power transfer independent of whether the primary is a non-polarised
circular or polarized solenoid or DD (as shown in fig 4.4).

While the Multi-coil-DDQ is very versatile in that the central coil can be made any desired size
relative to the DD coil to fit the designed transfer gaps, in the case of the Multi-coil-BP, both
coils are identical but it uses much less copper, and is therefore more efficient and lower cost.

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Fig 4.4 (a),(b) Multicoil polarized pads with independent windings (a) DDQ and (b) Bipolar

4.5 SPECIFIC POWER COMPARISONS BETWEEN NON POLARIZED AND

POLARIZED

The advantages of using a polarized primary such as the DD and secondary multi-coil structure
compared with circular pads are notable in terms of the available output power. For an almost
identical sized area pad compared with the material inputs. A DD primary with multi-coil
secondary pad set can be 18% smaller in area compared to a matched circular system yet produce
2 x the output VA with 28% less ferrite. The system uses more wire but the power output/wire is
21% higher for a multi-coil-DDQ and around 40% higher for a multi-coil-BP. The pick-up is
smaller, lighter, and easier to manufacture and is lower cost.

4.6 TARGET PAD SIZES

Typical pad sizes presently designed to achieve a vertical Z-gap of between 80-120mm are
shown in Table 4.6.
These are designed to operate with lateral parking tolerances in x or y of ±150mm without
significant variation in “k” . Pad sizes for larger airgaps must increase to ensure coupling factors
stay high and to avoid high losses.

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Table 4.6 Typical pad sizes to achieve vertical z-gap or between 80-120mm.

4.7 USING POLARISED PADS ALONG ROADWAY

The number of pads required to populate a section of roadway is not easy to calculate as it
depends on the sizes of the pads, and the tolerance to movement and misalignment.

Using the assumption that the ground pad and the vehicle pad are square shaped and of same
size,tolerance to misalignment is constant at 200mm ,then the number of pads can be calculated
and a typical result is shown in Fig. 4.7 here for a frequency of 40kHz operation.

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Fig. 4.7 Typical result for a frequency of 40 kHz operation

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 CHAPTER 5

THE DYNAMIC, CHARGE-ON-THE-MOVE

Fig 5..A Possible IPT Powered Highway : (a) Pads buried in the road supplied by roadside
cabinets

(b) Only Pads under the vehicle are energized.

Requires more power than any stationary implementation.

A string of pads along a 50m path are driven in both directions from redundant power supplies.
There is one power supply cabinet per 100m. As vehicles move along their lane, the dynamic
pads under the vehicle are switched on . Thus transfer of power takes place.
In dynamic IPT systems, strings of pads are turned on sequentially as the vehicle passes over
them. The pads on the ground must be very robust , the pads under the vehicle be thin, robust,
and light. Circular pads are not suitable for dynamic charging.

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 CHAPTER 7
CONCLUSION

IPT systems are now commercially viable with proven technology and a growing understanding
of the parameters that govern high power wireless energy transfer across large air gaps with
extended tolerance to misalignment. New pad innovations and designs coupled with an increased
knowledge of magnetics, resonance and the science and mathematics underpinning IPT prove
that costwise the technique is comparable to conductive charging. In addition the DDQ pad
architecture delivers substantial efficiency benefits while making compliance to industry
regulations easier to achieve Although 20 years ago the initial IPT research objective was
founded on dynamic charging, in the EV market, stationary IPT will be the initial deployment
with dynamic IPT following as systems are tested and rolled out. This work should help the EV
industry deliver compliant, interoperable, wireless EV charging hardware and infrastructure
supporting new global transportation initiatives and programs.

Traditional circular pad technology is challenged by polarized ,DD,DDQ pads giving greater
height and versatility. The battery capacity of EVs with wireless charging is reduced to 20% or
less compared to EVs with conductive charging.Unlimited EV range can be realized with
dynamic charging system.

EV receiver is developed to work equally well with both stationary and moving transmitter pads.
The problem areas to be solved are cost and development of the roadway infrastructure where
fragile magnetic materials such as ferrite have to be integrated into a concrete roadway to give a
long service life electrically in a very hostile environment.

Progress from here will require the construction of pad sets that can last in a roadway for 30
years or more and continue to operate efficiently over their lifetime despite changes in
technology

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 REFERENCES

[1] G.A Covic and J.T Boys , “Modern Trends in Inductive Power Transfer for Transportation
Applications” in IEEE JOURNAL OF EMERGING AND SELECTED TOPICS IN POWER
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[2] J. T. Boys and J. R. Lee, “Power quality with green energy, DDC, and inductively powered
EV’s,” in Proc. IEEE 33rd Int. Telecommun. Energy Conf., Oct. 2011, pp. 1–8.

[3] Y. Nagatsuka, N. Ehara, Y. Kaneko, S. Abe, and T. Yasuda, “Compact contactless power
transfer system for electric vehicles,” in Proc. Int.Power Electron. Conf., Jun. 2010, pp. 807–813.

[4] C.-Y. Huang, J. T. Boys, G. A. Covic, and M. Budhia, “Practical considerations for
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2009, pp. 402–407

[5] G. A. Covic, G. Elliott, O. H. Stielau, R. M. Green, and J. T. Boys,“ The design of a contact-
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vol. 1. Dec. 2000,pp. 79–84

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