Evaluation of a Meandering Track Primary Topology for EV Roadway Charging

Abstract

Many inductive power transfer dynamic systems have been proposed over the last decade; however, few consider interoperability to various secondaries in the design. This article proposes a limited-length two-phase meandering track primary to investigate the feasibility and tradeoffs between this multicoil track topology and a typical lumped pad primary topology for dynamic applications. The purpose of the proposed track system is to deliver continuous power with a smooth coupling profile which naturally lowers the rating requirements of the secondary electronic components, and to be interoperable with many secondary topologies. The proposed track is compared with a previously published lumped system using double-D primary pads distributed one per meter by a normalized coupling metric. The results show that this meandering track primary has a smaller impact on system electronic components and has better interoperability while it requires lower primary compensation rating compared to the lumped pad primary for the same power level. A prototype of the track was built and the simulation results were verified. A 10 kW power experiment was achieved a dc–dc efficiency of around 83%, and the potential of this multicoil topology for interoperable and low-cost high-power dynamic charging was demonstrated.