Abstract
Scientific progress in battery field related to autonomy has made electric vehicles really competitive. However, there is a problem that hasn’t been solved yet, the duration of the charge which still high, even if high power chargers are used. Inductive charging could be a solution to that problem because the infrastructure can become almost transparent for the user if it is implemented in car park areas.The aim of this PhD work is to evaluate the potential and the limitations of inductive charging, to identify eventual new concepts, in a fast charge power range (few tens of Kilowatts) and with air gaps higher than 10cm.First, different topologies of reactive energy compensation are compared and the Series-Series (SS) topology is selected. Then, in the same way, different power electronics architecture are compared. The architecture using a phase-shifted DC-AC converter to supply the primary side and a simple power bridge to supply the secondary side is adopted. This architecture allows regulating the current in the batteries without using DC-DC converters neither on the primary side nor on the secondary side.Then, a software is implemented that is able to calculate losses in Litz wire, as a function of the wire section and the strands diameter, the aim being to choose a Litz wire that minimizes the losses in the windings.The third step is the implementation of a tool dedicated to the design of the primary and secondary coils and of the magnetic shields. The tool is based on analytic equations and finite elements simulations. The design tool is validated by means of reduced scale experiments. Finally, an optimization algorithm is implemented.Considering the solutions identified in the first part, the previous design tools are finally used to design a 22kW prototype able to transfer energy through an air gap of 25cm. This prototype has been successfully tested at nominal power. An efficiency of 95% has been measured when the two coils are aligned.