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Wireless charging of electrical cars

Mitul Patel
Group: Mitul, Kerri, Andrew
Applied Physics 1
st
year, St Marys university college in collaboration with NPL

The aim of this experiment was to understand the concept of magnetic-resonant
coupling to transfer power wirelessly and develop experiments to demonstrate this
concept. This was done with the help of GCPBL questions and with the aid of
experiments. We experimentally demonstrated the concept connecting LED to the
secondary coil and making it light without any electrical connections. We were able to
light LED at a distance of 419mm and prove the concept to be valid. We present
various other applications which are completely based upon on this technique and
how it has helped to improve this further. We also present various other techniques
that have been used to transfer power efficiently. The resonant frequency was
measured to be 485Hz and we were able to transfer power with an efficiency of 17%
over a distance of 491mm.

Introduction

The idea of transporting power wirelessly has been
around for many years. Nicholas Tesla devoted much
effort to transfer power wirelessly over a long distance.
Nicholas Tesla in 1894 used resonant inductive
coupling technique to light up phosphorescent and
incandescent lamps wirelessly. Then in 1897 he
invented a device called transformer or Tesla coil. It
transfers electrical energy from primary coil to the
secondary coil via iron core without electrical
connection. It is capable of producing very high
voltages at high frequency. Toothbrush operates on
the same principle, however for the energy to transfer
efficiently from the primary coil (source) to secondary
coil (device); both must be located closely and must be
positioned with respect to each other.
In the later 1960s this technique was used
successfully in medical devices such as pacemakers
and artificial hearts. These devices were designed for
high efficiency power transfer. Power was transferred
efficiently over a distance of 20cm. Efficiency plays a
key role in this technique. The efficiency of power
transfer is very low if the radiation is omnidirectional.
Today various other devices such as in powering
vehicles, cell phones, and toothbrush are all based
upon this technique.
There are several ways to transfer power
wirelessly; it can be transferred via radio waves,
especially via microwaves but strong-coupled
resonator is the most efficient technique over a short
to long distance.
Wireless power transfer for experimentally
powering buses and other electrical devices requires
high level of energy transfer and high efficiency.
Inductive coupling technique is very well understood
method to transfer power wirelessly over short
distance. The primary coil is connected to the source,
current is passed through the primary coil and thus this
creating a sinusoidally varying magnetic field, which
induces an emf in the secondary coil and thus
transfers power to the load. However inductive
coupling is thus not reliable when it comes to transfer
power efficiently over long distance. In 2007 and 2008,
an MIT group used strong-coupled magnetic
resonance technique; well know in electromagnetic
theory and were able to transfer 60 watts power with
40% efficiency over a distance of 2 meters. Strong-
coupled magnetic resonance is the technique used to
transfer power efficiently. Two objects resonating at
the same frequency tends to transfer power efficiently
resulting dissipating little energy to the surrounding.
The benefit of using strong-coupled resonator is that a
single source can be used to transfer energy to more
than one device regardless of different power
requirements as show in the fig.1 below.


Fig.1. shows a source transmitter power to several devices of
different power requirements.

In 2012 a group at the University of Tokyo applied this
technique for a flying object. The object used by them
was a toy helicopter of 6.56g weight. They transferred
electric power from the ground to an equipped
helicopter at an altitude of approximately 10cm.
Power transferred can be measured using the
following equation


Where P power
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V maximum voltage
R resistance



Experimental Procedure

The experimental arrangement is show in Fig.1 and
Fig.2 below.



















Fig.2.and Fig.3.shows the experimental setup. Primary coil of
diameter 16cm connected to the AC generator and secondary coil of
same diameter is connected to the LED. D is the region of no
connection between primary and secondary, it represents direct
coupling between the objects.

Fig.2 and Fig.3 shows the setup of resonant coupling
system where in a function generator delivers power to
the primary coil. Function generator and the primary
coil were connected to the CH1 on the oscilloscope as
it allows to select the voltage and driving frequency.
The primary coil is set to oscillate at resonant
frequency via function generator. The primary coil in
this experiment act as a transmitter and the secondary
coil act as a receiver. The secondary coil then starts to
resonant. The two coils were separated by a distance
D.
In the first part of the experiment (1) voltage was
measured at resonant frequencies by varying the
distance between two coils. No LED was connected in
this part of the experiment.
In the second part of the experiment (2) a single value
of voltage was selected from the first experiment. By
varying voltage i.e from a low value where there is no
increase in signal on the oscilloscope through the
resonance to a frequency value at which the signal
again falls back to the normal level, frequency was
measured. Distance between two coils was kept
constant.
And finally the maximum distance between two coils at
which LED will light was figured out by varying the
distance.

Results and Discussion

The result of experiment (1) is presented in table 1 and
is shown graphically in Fig. 4.

v/v u/m 0.01m
1.1 0.419
1.8 0.339
2.9 0.299
3.4 0.239
11.6 0.179
23 0.119
Table 1 shows the result of experiment (1). Voltage is measured at
varying distance between two coils.



Fig.4.show the graph of V/V as a function of the D/m. A trendline is
added.

The data shows inverse square relationship between
the Voltage and the varying distance between two
coils. The voltage drops as the distance between the
coils is increased and increases as the distance
between coils is smaller.

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The data collected in experiment (2) is shown below in
table 2 and is represented graphically in Fig.5.

lrequency/kPz volLage/v
436.9 0.2
439.9 0.21
441.2 0.22
444.7 0.23
438.1 0.23
471 0.26
311 0.23
328.8 0.24
336.1 0.22
384.1 0.2
621 0.18
644.4 0.16
663.7 0.14
Table 2 represents the result of experiment (2). Voltage and
frequency is measured by keeping constant distance between two
coils.



Fig.5. show the graph of V/V as a function of the Frequency/KHz. A
trendline is added.

The data from experiment (2) was used to determine
the value of resonant frequency and power efficiency.
We were able to transfer very small amount of power
with an efficiency of 17% resulting in significant error.
We believe this could be because the two coils were
not exactly in line with respect to each other and were
not exactly parallel (one coil must be leaning) as it was
suppose to be. The experiment (2) could be improved
further by taking more readings in order to reduce
errors and achieve high value of Q-factor.
We connected 5 more LEDs in series with the total of
6 LEDs to check whether a single source could light
more than one LED and as it can be clearly seen in
the fig.7 the idea that a strong-coupled resonance
could transfer energy to more than single receiver was
shown experimentally valid.


Fig.6. shows an LED light up using resonant coupling technique.

fig.7. shows 6 LEDs in series light up without any electrical
connection

The main purpose of these experiments was to
understand how this model can be used to charge a
car efficiently. Fig.8 shows how it can be done without
any electrical connections. Two coils are embedded
inside the two pads (receiver and a transmitter). The
transmitter is then embedded in the road which is
connected to the power source and a receiver is
placed underneath the car. The electricity flowing
through the transmitter is converted into a magnetic
field which oscillates at a frequency. This then
generates a second magnetic field that oscillates
around the receiver at the same frequency and it then
converts magnetic field back to electricity that goes
into a charger inside the car and charges the battery.
Using this technique the vehicles can not only be
charged while stationary but can also be charged while
moving. As the vehicles can be charged while in
motion the batteries can be reduced in size. In terms
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of safety, the electromagnetic radiations that are
generated are kept at much lower than international
standards. The power lines can be managed by
segmentation technology, which supplies power to just
electrical vehicles only when they are passing over
power line and switches itself off when not in use to
protect from magnetic fields. This technology is smart
enough to distinguish electrical vehicles from regular
vehicles.





Fig.8. shows how a car can be charged using magnetic-resonant
coupling technique. A transmitter from the road transmits energy to
the receiver in the car that is connected to the battery.


Conclusion

The objective of this experiment was to understand the
concept of magnetic-resonance coupling and develop
experiments to demonstrate this technique was
satisfied. The resonant frequency was 485Hz and
power efficiency was determined to be 17% which was
off by 58% when compared to the power transferred
by MIT researchers.
As showed in this report, the magnetic-resonance
coupling is the most efficient way to transfer power
over short distance and could be used in several
devices from powering short range devices such as
toothbrush to long range such as vehicles.

References

[1] Physics for Scientists and Engineers-8
th
Edition,
Raymond A. Serway, John W. Jewett

[2] University Physics with Modern Physics-
13
th
Edition,Roger A. Freedman, Hugh D. Young, A.
Lewis Ford.

[3] A. Kurs, A. Karalias, R. Moffatt, J. D.
Joannopoulos, P. Fisher and M. Soljacic, Wireless
Power Transfer Coupled Magnetic Resonances,
Science Magazine, Vol. 317, No.5834, 2007, pp. 83-86

[4] W. C. Brown, "The history of power transmission
by radio waves," IEEE Trans. MTT, MTT-32, no.
9, pp. 1230-1242, 1984.

[5] A. karalls, !.u. !oannopoulos, and M. Sol[aclc,
LfflclenL Wlreless non-radlaLlve Mldrange
Lnergy 1ransfer", !""# %&'(., 898, pp. 34-48,
(2008), publlshed onllne Aprll 2007.






























Receiver connected
to the battery of the
car
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