Advances in Inductively Coupled Power Transfer Technology for Rail Transit

Traditional power supply method for moving electric railway vehicles is based on contact type power collection technology.This sometimes cannot meet the requirements of modern rail transportation.A new wireless power transfer(WPT)technology can offer significant benefits in modern rail transportation particularly in some stringent environments.This paper reviews the status and the development of rail transit power supply technology,and introduces a new challenging technology--inductive power transfer(IPT)technology for rail transit.Tesla established the underpinning of IPT technology and creatively and significantly demonstrated power transfer by using highly resonant tuned coils long time ago.However,only in recent years the IPT technology has been significantly improved including the transfer air-gap length,transfer efficiency,coupling factor,power transfer capability and so on.This is mainly due to innovative semiconductor switches,higher control frequency,better coil designs and high performance material,new track and vehicle construction techniques.Recent advances in IPT for rail transit and major milestones of the developments are summarized in this paper.Some important technical issues such as coupling coil structures,power supply schemes,segmentation switching techniques for long-distance power supply,and bidirectional IPT systems for braking energy feedback are discussed.

A Novel Pulse Density Modulation with Semi-bridgeless Active Rectifier in Inductive Power Transfer System for Rail Vehicle

In this paper,a novel pulse density modulation(PDM)with semi-bridgeless active rectifier(S-BAR)in inductive power transfer(IPT)system for rail vehicle is proposed.It is to reduce switching losses of the active rectifier in pickups.In the control method,the insulated-gate bipolar transistors(IGBTs)in the S-BAR are controlled by synchronous PDM signals,so that zero-voltage switching(ZVS)and zero-current switching(ZCS)can be achieved in the whole output power range.The output power is regulated by changing the pulse density(PD)of the S-BAR since the it is almost linear proportional with the PD in high quality factor of pickup side.The communication device between the primary side and pickup side is not necessary anymore.The detailed theoretical analyses of the PDM method are provided,and its advantages are shown in a 7.5kW IPT prototype for rail vehicle.The experimental results are presented to verify the analysis and demonstrate the performance.The overall efficiency of the system by PDM control is 74.2%which is improved by 4%compared with phase shift(PS)control at light load.

Design and analysis of an underwater inductive coupling power transfer system for autonomous underwater vehicle docking applications

We develop a new kind of underwater inductive coupling power transfer(ICPT)system to evaluate wireless power transfer in autonomous underwater vehicle(AUV)docking applications.Parameters that determine the performance of the system are systematically analyzed through mathematical methods.A circuit simulation model and a finite element analysis(FEA)simulation model are developed to study the power losses of the system,including copper loss in coils,semiconductor loss in circuits,and eddy current loss in transmission media.The characteristics of the power losses can provide guidelines to improve the efficiency of ICPT systems.Calculation results and simulation results are validated by relevant experiments of the prototype system.The output power of the prototype system is up to 45 W and the efficiency is up to 0.84.The preliminary results indicate that the efficiency will increase as the transmission power is raised by increasing the input voltage.When the output power reaches 500 W,the efficiency is expected to exceed 0.94.The efficiency can be further improved by choosing proper semiconductors and coils.The analysis methods prove effective in predicting the performance of similar ICPT systems and should be useful in designing new systems.

Wireless Charger Design of Robot Vacuum Cleaners with Power Repeaters for High Compatibility

Curved coils constructed by flexible printed circuit board (PCB) or hand-wound Litz-wire have been steadily becoming popular due to its applicable potential on devices that have a curved body. Inductive Power Transfer (IPT) systems based on curved coils and flexible ferrite sheets may provide more flexible charging solutions for various electronic devices such as rice cookers and robot vacuum cleaners. Power repeaters are also used in IPT systems to extend wireless charging range by guiding magnetic fields to the receiving coil. The interaction of these three topics could be inspiring. In this paper, two adjustable power repeaters are applied to an IPT charging system with various curved receiving coils designed for vacuum cleaners. Two power repeaters share the identical structure as the Tx coil and could be rotated to mirror symmetrically. The input and output power are calculated by analyzing the equivalent circuit model. The self-inductance, mutual inductance, and coupling coefficient of the proposed system are obtained via finite element method simulation with variable rotating angles. Three typical IPT designs have also been simulated in ANSYS Maxwell and compared with the proposed magnetic design. The comparison indicates the enhancing feature of the passive power repeaters on coupling performance and the ability to guide the magnetic flux for better magnetic field coupling. Furthermore, two types of co-simulations defined by the power source via Simplorer are conducted to explore how much power could be transferred. The tuned system is shown to be able to provide about 32 W under 100 kHz operating frequency for charging the battery of a robot vacuum cleaner. The results from theoretical calculation and simulation align well with each other.

Research on earthquake prediction from geomagnetic pulsation

This paper has presented a research on the method of using digitized data of geomagnetic pulsation observation to predict earthquakes and the research results.According to the theory of inductive magnetic effect,the observation of geomagnetic pulsation events can detect the preseismic conductivity and structure anomalies of subsurface media more effectively than the conventional geomagnetic observations,especially the short-impending anomalies before earthquakes.Our research results have also indicated that the geomagnetic pulsation transfer function has obvious short-impending anomalies and typical anomaly forms before earthquakes.Using the proposed method,satisfactory prediction results have been obtained.

Effects of liquid feed rate and impeller rotation speed on heat transfer in a mechanically fluidized reactor

A mechanically fluidized reactor （MFR） is a novel and compact reactor used for biomass pyrolysis. Endothermic biomass pyrolysis requires heat provided from the wall of the MFR. Meanwhile, mixing with a vertical stirrer helps achieve effective heat transfer from the wall to the bed. Here, the heat trans- fer characteristics between the wall of a 1.0-L MFR and its bed of mechanically fluidized sand particles were studied. An induction heating system was used to heat the wall, while a vertical blade stirrer was used for mixing. Heat transfer measurements were carried out using silica sand particles, having three average Sauter mean diameters： 190, 300, and 600 p.m. The overall wall-to-bed heat transfer coeffi- cients were estimated using temperature measurements taken during continuous injection of water onto the fluidized bed. The overall heat transfer coefficient for bed temperatures of 500-700℃ increased as particle size increased or superficial velocity of the vaporized liquid increased. Effect of impeller rotation speed also was investigated. Typically, the overall heat transfer coefficient increased as rotation speed increased. The wall-to-bed heat transfer coefficients obtained in this study are comparable to estimates from traditional bubbling fluidized beds, even at vapor velocities below the minimum fluidization veloccity.

Eddy current loss analysis and frequency optimization design of double-sided LCC-IPT system in seawater environment

Inductive power transfer system can generate eddy current when operating in seawater medium. On the one hand, it can cause eddy current loss, and reduce operating efficiency of the system. On the other hand, it can change parameters of the system and increase difficulty of system design. To grasp the influence mechanism of seawater on the inductive power transfer system,firstly, an equivalent circuit model of double-sided inductor-capacitor-capacitor(LCC) inductive power transfer system in seawater environment was established based on loosely-coupled transformer model of eddy current. Then, based on Maxwell’s equations, the distribution function of the magnetic field and electric current density along radium direction of the coupling coils in seawater medium was obtained by analytical calculation. Besides, in combination with Biot-Savart law, expression of the eddy current loss in transfer direction was derived, and based on which expression of the equivalent of the eddy current loss on the coupling coils was got. Thus the equivalent resistance of the eddy current on the coupling coils in a seawater environment could be predicated, and the optimal operating frequency of the inductive power transfer system could be further optimized. Finally, a prototype of inductive power transfer system was established, which gave the experimental results, and verified the correctness of theoretical analysis, and the experiments showed that: in air medium, the transfer distance was 100 mm, the transfer power was 3.3 k W, and the transfer efficiency was 92.6%;while, in seawater medium, the transfer efficiency was 87%. Eddy current losses mainly caused the reduction in efficiency, and the experimental results of eddy current loss were consistent with the simulation results.