Abstract
By using bi-directional inductive power transfer (IPT) systems as battery chargers for electric vehicles (EVs), battery charging operations become convenient and safe. However, IPT systems have problems such as occurrences of much electromagnetic noise and power loss because the converters of IPT systems are driven in high frequency by tens of kHz. To solve these problems, there is a case where the soft-switching technique needs to be applied to the converters of IPT systems. However, in soft-switching operation, the power factor of the resonant circuit becomes lower, resulting in a lower resonant circuit efficiency. In previous works, when the soft-switching technique was applied to the converters, the resonant circuit had not always been able to be operated with high efficiency because the influence caused by soft-switching operation had not been considered. For this reason, there was a case where the efficiency of the overall system with soft-switching operation became lower than the efficiency in hard-switching operation. Therefore, in this paper, the influence on the efficiency of the resonant circuit caused by the soft-switching operation is clarified by the theoretical analysis and experiments; then, the guideline for improving the efficiency of IPT systems is shown. As a result, in the experiments, it could be understood that the efficiency of the overall system with soft-switching operation becomes higher than the efficiency in hard-switching operation when the operating point of the resonant circuit was close to the requirement guideline, which is shown by using the primary-side voltage and the secondary-side voltage of the resonant circuit. Therefore, it is suggested that the efficiency of IPT systems could be improved by properly regulating the primary-side direct current (DC) voltage.
Highlights
There is an adjustment method for supply and demand balance in a power system by utilizing the batteries on electric vehicles (EVs) as a part of energy storage systems [1,2,3,4,5]
There is a case where the soft-switching technique needs to be applied to the converters of inductive power transfer (IPT) systems [9,15,19,20,21]
As one of the methods for the synchronization of the active bridges, the method where the zero-cross points of the resonant circuit currents are detected by current sensors can be assumed; this subject will be discussed in a future report
Summary
Department of Electrical Engineering, Faculty of Science and Technology, Tokyo University of Science, 2641 Yamazaki, Noda-city, Chiba 278-8510, Japan JSPS Research Fellow (PD), Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Sumitomo-Ichibancho Bldg., Received: 24 July 2019; Accepted: 9 September 2019; Published: 11 September 2019
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
