An Underwater Inductive Power Transfer System with a Compact Receiver and Reduced Eddy Current Loss

Inductive power transfer (IPT) technology is widely used in autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) to achieve safety and flexibility. However, the eddy current loss (ECL) will be generated in the seawater due to the high-frequency alternating current in the transmitter and receiver. An underwater IPT system with a series-none (SN) compensation topology is proposed in this paper to achieve a compact receiver for AUVs and reduce the ECL. The analytical model of the IPT system is built to analyze its transfer performance. The phase difference between the transmitter and receiver current of the SN compensation topology is larger than 90° compared to that of the conventional series-series (SS) topology, which can significantly decrease the magnitude of the electric field caused by coil currents; thus, the eddy current loss is reduced. Moreover, the optimal load resistance of the seawater IPT system is lower than that in the air, and the SN compensation topology has a more compact receiver with no compensation capacitor in the receiving side, which can save the internal space in the AUVs. An experimental prototype based on the SN topology is built, and the experimental results have verified the analysis.