Toward efficient very low frequency wireless power transfer for EVs: From grid to battery

Abstract

This paper aims to improve the efficiency, affordability, and safety of Wireless Power Transfer (WPT) devices. While wireless inductive charging is common in devices like smartphones, charging electric vehicles presents significant challenges due to high frequency electromagnetic fields that can be dangerous for users and those nearby. Current systems are expensive due to the use of specialized materials and components. By developing WPT systems with drastically reduced frequency levels, this research has the potential to significantly impact the widespread adoption of affordable, safe, and efficient WPT devices for high-power applications like electric vehicle charging. In fact, using lower frequencies allows us to build WPT systems with far less expensive materials, e.g. no need of Litz wires and ferrites that can be replaced by single core copper wires and classical magnetic steels. The effectiveness of the method is demonstrated through simulation using MATLAB Simulink® and experimental tests. The results indicate that it is possible to maintain good performance, reduce limitations and costs, and improve user acceptance of WPT systems by considerably lowering the frequency of electromagnetic fields that are classically used in such systems.