During the last decades, public awareness of the environmental, economic and social consequences of using fossil fuels has considerably grown. Moreover, not only the supply of fossil resources is limited, but also the environmental impact represents a relevant issue, so leading to an increased consideration of clean and renewable alternatives to traditional technologies. During recent years, the automotive industry has shown a growing interest in electric and hybrid electric vehicles. However, the transition to all-electric transportation is now limited by the high cost of the vehicles, the limited range and the long recharging time. Distributed IPT (inductive power transfer) systems can be the solution to the range restrictions of EVs by charging the vehicle while driving thanks to, a set of loosely coupled coils, so also reducing required battery size as well as overall cost of the vehicle. The concept of wireless power transfer via magnetic induction was introduced two decades ago. Nowadays, this technology is becoming more efficient and more suitable for new applications. This dissertation made an effort to address the requirements of IPT EV battery charging system with high efficiency and good tolerance to misalignment. A survey of a typical IPT for EV application has been reported, while a concentrated DD-BP solution has been proposed in order to enhance the IPT charging system capability of transferring power to a stationary EV with good efficiency and good tolerance to movement. The current trend in EV battery charging application is represented by the lamped coil system, whose different structures have been reviewed. Moreover, this thesis presented the design of a charging pad magnetic structure, called Double D pad combined with a Bipolar secondary pad, in order to enhance coupling performance. A finite element magnetic analysis has been performed in order to obtain the electric parameters of the proposed magnetic coupler. Furthermore, a mathematical model has been developed by considering the different sides of the system. The mathematical model allows to accurately predict the behavior of inductive coils and coreless transformer. A set of simulation has been carried out in order to compare the analytical and simulated results. The proposed EV IPT system has shown the feasibility of using fixed frequency, single pick up system to transfer power efficiently across a large air gap, with variable coupling. This result has been reached by means of proper design of the charging pad magnetics, of tuning network and of a pick-control based on a buck boost converter topology.
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