A Comparative Assessment of Magnetic Concrete versus Ferrite for a High Power Inductive Coupler

The air pollution in large urban agglomerations can be drastically reduced by electrical mobility which covers all means of road transport: personal cars, freight cars and especially buses. All of them are dependent on the existence of charging stations that are able to ensure the charging of their batteries at home, in parking lots, on the route or in depots. Compared to the classic, conductive charging (Plug-In), contactless charging (Wireless Power Transfer - WPT) is a disruptive technique with numerous advantages that allows static, semi-dynamic (opportunity charging) and dynamic charging (on route) of batteries. This paper refers to the WPT transfer via an inductive magnetic coupler that is embedded in the pavement and must withstand heavy car traffic without damage. This paper also assesses the possibility of replacing the brittle ferrites used in classical constructions with Magnetic Concrete (MC). It presents the choice of concrete mixture composition, the experimental determination of its magnetic properties and an analysis on the electromagnetic efficiency of the WPT system for different magnetic coupler structures, through Finite Element (FE) simulations.