Design of a Cylindrical Winding Structure for Wireless Power Transfer Used in Rotatory Applications

• Main Authors: Mohamad Abou Houran, Xu Yang, Wenjie Chen
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2020-03-01
• Series: Electronics
• Subjects: cylindrical joint; electromagnetic fields; rotation-free structure; wireless power transfer
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2079-9292/9/3/526

A cylindrical joint structure for wireless power transfer (WPT) systems is proposed. The transmitter (Tx) and receiver (Rx) coils were wound on hemicylindrical and cylindrical structures, respectively. The Rx coil rotates freely around the axial direction of the Tx coil. Different methods of winding the Tx and Rx coils are given and discussed. Electromagnetic fields (EMFs) around the WPT windings should be lower than the limits set by WPT standards. Therefore, the WPT windings were designed to reduce EMF level and maintain constant power-transfer efficiency (PTE). The design procedures of the windings are discussed in detail. EMF analysis was done under different rotation angles (&#945;). The selected design reduced the variation of the mutual inductance (<i>M</i>). As a result, it maintained a constant PTE while rotating the Rx coil between 0&#176; and 85&#176;. Moreover, leakage magnetic fields (LMFs) near the WPT coils of the chosen design were reduced by 63.6% compared with other winding methods that have the same efficiency. Finally, a prototype was built to validate the proposed idea. Experiment results were in good agreement with the simulation results. The WPT system maintained constant efficiency in spite of the rotation of Rx coil, where efficiency dropped by only 2.15% when the Rx coil rotated between 0&#176; and 85&#176;.