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The Inductive Charging team has been tasked with developing and implementing a method in which to determine the sensitivity of the charging rate of the Inductive Power Transfer system, to the orientation of the primary and secondary coils.
This project will utilize Wampfler® equipment designed for integration with a bus. Rather than having the two coils of a transformer in a fixed orientation they have been separated. The primary coil is buried flush with the roadbed along the bus’ route and the secondary coil is mounted on the underside of the bus. When the bus is aligned with the primary coil, the batteries can be charged using inductive charging to generate a current in the secondary coil.
The major aim of this project is to test how the orientation of the primary and secondary coils affects the charging rate of the batteries. The two most important aspects of the design include a frame capable of supporting the secondary coil in a range of orientations above the primary coil, and a positioning system capable of accurately measuring what that orientation is. This frame will simulate the underside of the bus carrying the secondary coil. The data obtained from running these experiments will help determine the tolerances in which the bus must be aligned with the primary coil to obtain a sufficient charge for the bus within a given time frame.
