Comparison Analysis of Bipolar and Double D-shape Configurations in Inductive Power Transfer Electric Vehicle Chargers

Inductive electric vehicle charging systems is a revolutionary step toward transportation electrification. One of the major challenges in Inductive Power Transfer(IPT) system which is comprised of transmitting and receiving coils is the appropriate selection of couplers' configuration for dynamic charging application while EV is moving. The performance of Bipolar Power Pads (BPP) as the proposed coupler in this paper is compared with the existing Double D-Shape (DD) power pad for IPT Electric Vehicle (EV) chargers by analyzing the misalignment tolerance, power transfer capability, and safety index. 3D-Finite Element Analysis (FEA) models of these two types of coupler is built in ANSYS MAXWELL. A parametric FEA study is carried out to simulate the dynamic IPT system with either DD or BPP via defining the secondary position as the variable, and results of them are compared. To examine the public safety index, the flux density distribution in distance of 400mm from either the BPP setup or DD coupler are shown to show which configuration provides safer charging environment for public exposure considering the maximum allowable electromagnetic field exposure (EMF ≤ EMFMax).