Potential of wireless power transfer for dynamic charging of electric vehicles

Abstract

Wireless Power Transfer (WPT) offers a viable means of charging Electric Vehicles (EV)’s whilst in a dynamic state, mitigating issues concerning vehicle range, the size of on-board energy storage and the network distribution of static based charging systems. Such charge while driving technology has the capability to accelerate EV market penetration through increasing user convenience, reducing EV costs and increasing driving range indefinitely, dependent upon sufficient charging infrastructure. While much work has taken place to assess the potential of WPT under both static and dynamic situations at technical levels, the real world aspects of such a scenario has received limited investigation. The current gap in knowledge was not technologically driven, instead, it was an implementation issue in understanding how systems would be deployed and utilised within the road network. It became evident that a series of modelling tools were required in which studies could quantify the optimisation of deployment scenarios, environmental and user benefits, as well as the detailed interaction of users within the traffic network. A series of traffic and energy models are produced that have demonstrated for the first time how the specific WPT road layout will affect driver journey times, as well as the detailed vehicle interactions with one another and the charging system. This has shown realistic values for both EV energy consumption as well as energy that can be transferred to the vehicle from dynamic WPT charging systems. A series of mathematical models are presented that can be used to determine likely vehicle speeds, energy consumption, energy transfer and emission values given a users specific WPT charging configuration; importantly, without the need for further detailed microscopic simulation work. Finally, the tools developed in this thesis were applied to a macroscopic study to begin to understand the level of WPT route equipment that may be required at the Strategic Route Network (SRN) level to provide a feasible charging system. A greater understanding has been gained to the current potential of WPT systems, and whilst WPT technology has been shown to be technically possible for the dynamic charging of EVs, it cannot be assumed. Such scenarios require extensive analysis before physical deployment of infrastructure, the issues explored within this thesis and the tools developed as a result of such can be used to undertake this analysis and optimisation

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Identifiers

ORCID for Luke Hutchinson: orcid.org/0000-0003-1667-482X

ORCID for Benedict Waterson: orcid.org/0000-0001-9817-7119

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