Eddy current loss analysis of underwater wireless power transfer systems with misalignments

Abstract

Underwater wireless power transfer (WPT) has gained a lot of popularity in recent years. In the seawater environment, the electrical conductivity is non-negligible compared with that in the air. Therefore, the eddy current loss is generated by the high-frequency alternating currents in the coils. The eddy current loss of the aligned coils has been analyzed while the eddy current loss of the misaligned coils has not been explored yet, which is crucial because misaligned coils are more common in practical applications. In this paper, an analytical model for the eddy current loss of a coreless WPT system in the seawater with misalignments is established with Maxwell’s equations. The theoretical expressions of the electric field intensity and the eddy current loss are derived. Then the eddy current loss is analyzed under different misalignments and frequencies. It is found that the efficiency in the seawater remains stable at a frequency range of 215.5 kHz to 248.4 kHz. Moreover, the efficiency is relatively unchanged under a small lateral misalignment and decreases sharply when the lateral misalignment keeps growing. An underwater WPT prototype is built and the experiments verify the theoretical analysis.