Gaussian process surrogate model for the design of circular, planar coils used in inductive power transfer for electric vehicles

Abstract

In recent years, there has been an increased interest in inductive charging systems for electric vehicles. Since the efficiency of the charging system is highly dependent on the couplers used, the design of the coil system is a key issue for inductive power transfer (IPT). As the coil system has numerous variables, a full factorial analysis of the system is not possible due to the long computation time of the numerical simulation model. Therefore, a surrogate model is developed, which approximates and interpolates the complex and expensive simulation code. With this ‘model of the model’, a reliable and efficient dimensioning and optimisation of the coil system within seconds is possible. It identifies the main important factors and their influence on the IPT system. Based on this surrogate model, important factor relations can be determined, which allow a significant improvement of the behaviour of the IPT system. All simulations conducted in this study are validated and verified.