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An Actively Cooled Coaxial Winding Transformer For Fast Charging Electric Vehicles
An Actively Cooled Coaxial Winding Transformer For Fast Charging Electric Vehicles
Abstract- A 120-kW coaxial winding transformer has been Primary Side Secondary Side
built and tested to verify previous indications that a high power Converter Converter
transformer is feasible with the key attributes of this novel design,
namely: low leakage inductance, minimal effect of leakage field
on core losses, low copper losses, and a convenient “nesting”
structure well-suited for separability of the windings. The power
transfer capability is more than double that of any previously
published result for coaxial winding transformers. The appli- ac(lf)/dc dc/acolf) High\ acolf)/dc
cation chosen for the fabricated transformer was an inductive input Power Frequency OUtPUt
Rectifier converter Inductive Iktifier
coupler for fast charging of electric vehicles. Presented are the Interface
key parametric decisions, their impact on transformer fabrication
and characteristics, and the results of these design choices as lf=low frequency, 50/60 Hz
observed in the experimental data. The final design has active hf=high frequency, 15 kHz-2OOkHz
cooling to facilitate high power density and a separable core
to allow the primary and secondary windings to be coupled Fig. 1. Inductive charging system block schematic diagram.
and uncoupled. The experimental data shows performance better
than expected, with a magnetizing to leakage inductance ratio of
‘2
1000 : 1,efficiency well over 99% and power density of 25 kW/kg.
I. INTRODUCTION Toroidal
’ Core
11. DESIGNSPECIFICATIONS
The output voltage was determined in anticipation of a
All power transformers are limited by their ability to dis- passive rectifier bridge on the EV. The primary voltage and
sipate internally generated losses or by their regulation. An m s ratio are selected based on the highest voltage practical
actively cooled transformer is essentially a device operated for the power switches used, considering the number of turns
beyond the normal limits of current density, flux density will be limited to keep the leakage inductance small. A unity
and/or frequency with built-in capability to remove the higher turns ratio is chosen with only four turns for both primary and
than usual copper or core losses in addition to that passively secondary windings.
dissipated from the outer surfaces to ambient air. The design The basic approach to the design of the conductors is to
procedure for an actively cooled transformer requires the set the wall thickness at the optimum thickness for the highest
thermal characteristics of both passive and active cooling frequency of operation, and then increase diameter to decrease
mechanisms be included from the outset. Unfortunately, ac- the current density and increase heat removal surfaces. With
curate thermal modeling requires knowledge of the physical outer and inner windings carrying very nearly the same current,
structure, and the proper design of the physical smcture it is easy to see from Fig. 2 that the smaller inner winding will
requires knowledge of the thermal characteristics. Therefore, always have a higher current density and smaller surface from
the design procedure for a new actively cooled device will which to remove heat. Thus, the inner winding is the thermally
necessarily be iterative. limiting component in the transformer. In anticipation of
For fast charging electric vehicles of the near future the actively cooling the inner winding, the diameter and current
transformer electrical specifications were established as density were.set so the thermal density was about 1 W/cm2,
Secondary Voltage, 1111s: 600 volts, square-wave this area taken normal to the direction of heat transfer. This
Secondary Current, rms: 200 amperes, quasi-sinusoid results in the very high current density which assures high
Phase: 1 power density.
Frequency: 20.5 kHz A unique feature of a transformer made from thin tubular
Core material: PC40 shells or flat foils is the large surface area of the conduc-
Conductor material: copper tors compared to bundled round wire. Some heat will be
Cooling: demineralized water dissipated by convection from the outer surfaces of the trans-
Temperature rise, hot spot: 80°C. former, and the thermal density assumed for these surfaces
was 0.03 W/cm2. Also, the flux density of the core can be set
somewhat higher than usual with the a priori knowledge that
111. DESIGNCONSIDERATIONS AND TRADE-OFFS some core heat will be removed by the coolant.
Certain design assumptions are required to continue the In any nonautomatic connecting system for EV charging, the
design process. These are discussed here and summarized at user is required to assist in the insertion process by moving and
the end of this section. aligning one of the two conductors, and perhaps a portion of
To maintain the low leakage inductance required for ac- the core. An early decision was to maintain approximately the
ceptable high frequency operation, a low number of turns is dimensions of today's gasoline pump handle. A larger device
desired, but this usually leads to unacceptably high magne- may be difficult to manipulate by some people, and a smaller
tizing current. This effect can be minimized by providing an device may have insufficient ruggedness or be perceived to be
absolute minimum air gap once insertion has been completed. like a toy to nontechnical individuals. The design assumptions
The loop window of the secondary winding, Fig. 3, contains no include allowances for insulation and a loose fit of the nesting
core material so the number of core/a.ir interfaces in the flux winding during insertion.
path is a minimum. Additional effects of this design choice The physical means of providing four turns in a CWT
are discussed in [6]. A magnetizing inductance to leakage leads to very interesting and important design trade-offs unique
inductance ratio of 1000 : 1 was achieved in the fabricated to the CWT structure. Fig. 4(a) and (b).shows two different
transformer. methods considered for achieving a four turn winding while
KLONTZ et al.: AN ACTIVELY COOLED 120-kW COAXIAL WINDING TRANSFORMER 1259
t I
(6)
Bo = p0nI
~
Fig. 4. (a) 4-turn CWT with tums in one layer. (b) 4-tum CWT with tums 2m,
in two layers. T, - T,
z=-
s
maintaining an essentially circular cross section. Each method sinh(2z) + sin(2z)
Fl(x) =
differs in the effective ac resistance, hence losses, due to differ- cosh(2z) - C O S ( ~ Z )
ent average current densities, optimal thicknesses and current F2(z) =
+
sinh(z) cos(2) cosh(z) sin(z)
distribution within conductors. Importantly, each method has ) ~0422)
c o s h ( 2 ~-
different needs with respect to cooling, due to the resulting
surface area per watt of copper loss and the locations at which
Fig. 6 shows the ac resistance for the one-layer arrangement
active cooling must be added.
of Fig. 4(a), normalized to the dc resistance of a hollow,
Approximate formulae for ac resistances of coaxial, non-
nonsegmented tube of thickness equal to one skin depth. Also,
segmented conductors were presented by Perry [SI, which the tube thickness has been normalized to the skin depth.
indicated the optimal conductor thickness for a given fre-
Fig. 7 is an enlarged view and shows an optimal resistance
quency. With reference to Fig. 5 for notation, the ac resistance
less than the normalization value is achievable in the one
of the nth layer per meter of turn length, R,, for each of layer configuration. The optimal tube wall thickness occurs
the two windings of the configuration shown in Fig. 4(a) is at approximately 7r6/2.
given by (l), where B, and Bo are the magnetic flux density The ac resistance for the two.layer arrangement of Fig. 4(b)
boundary conditions at T,, the inner surface of the nth layer, can be approximated with four equations of the form of
and at T,, the outer surface of the nth layer, respectively. The
(l), but with new boundary conditions on the flux density.
equation is valid for tube radii and tube wall thickness much The new boundary conditions are determined by Ampere’s
larger than the skin depth, where F1 and F 2 are adequate Law, considering the net current enclosed at each surface.
approximations of the modified Bessel functions they replace. Fig. 8 shows the ac resistance of the two-segment, two-layer
configuration, each layer normalized to the dc resistance of
a nonsegmented tube with the same inner radius and wall
where thickness of one 6.
The normalized resistance for each turn is the same since
they have been normalized by the dc resistance of different
tubes, each being one4 thick, but with one of inner radius
N = Number of segments per layer T I and one of inner radius ~ 3 The. resistance is 16 times the
p = resistivity, R-meters nonsegmented minimum value of 0.92 due to the N 2 factor.
1260 EEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS, VOL. 31, NO. 6, NOVEMBERiDECEMBER 1995
Fig. 6. Normalized ac resistance for 4-segment, one-layer winding. Fig. 8. Normalized ac resistance of 2-!ayer configuration, with 2 segments
per layer.
TABLE I
RESISTANCECOMPARISON
NORMALIZED
9 148-
$
2 146-
layer, 4-segment configuration has the practical advantages of
144-
simpler construction and less room taken by insulation layers.
142- The fabricated transformer used the method illustrated in
14l I Fig. 4(b) to achieve the current density and heat density targets
1 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2 2.2 2.4 2.6 2.8 3
above. It is important to note that the optimal thickness is a
Normalized T u b Thichess
function of frequency, which means this design is optimized
Fig.7. Same as Fig.6, with expanded scale of Fig. 6. for one frequency. In Figs. 6 and 8 an increase in frequency
is equivalent to moving the abscissa towards the origin of
the graph. The cylindrically concentric nesting of the primary
The normalized ac resistance of the layer nearest the in- and secondary windings inherently assures a minimal leakage
terwinding space (see Fig. 2) has an optimal thickness which field, thus assuring minimal losses in conductors and the core
occurs at a different conductor thickness, and the ac resistance caused by the leakage field.
is always more than the dc value. The inherently higher S u m a r y of design parameters resulting from the above
resistance is offset, however, by the increase in conductor design considerations:
cross section obtained by having fewer segments per layer 1) 1 : 1 turns ratio, 4 turns, 2 layers;
and having only two of the four tums affected. The total 2) Flux density, max.: 0.3 T;
transformer ac resistance is the sum of the resistance of each 3) Current density, max.: 20 AImm2;
layer since they are connected in series for a total of four tums. 4) Core length: 165 mm;
Table I compares the optimal, normalized ac resistance 5 ) Interwinding space for loose fit: 1 mm;
for the conductor configurations of Fig. 4. For a given cur- 6) Optimal copper thicknesses:
rent, frequency, and MLT, the conductor losses are directly Outer-most and inner-most layers:
proportional to the ac resistance. 7r
Table I shows the total ac resistance of the configuration t = 0.89 " , M -6
2
of Fig. 4(b) is lower than that of Fig. 4(a), even thougb the
resistance of the layer near the interwinding space is quite high.
Also, it is important that the surface area available for heat Layers near interwinding space:
removal is much greater for the two-layer arrangement, with all
conductors of Fig. 4(b) having twice the surface area compared t = 0.41 mm, M 0.826;
to those of Fig. 4(a). However, in actual practice, active
cooling between layers may be difficult to implement. The one- 7) Major insulation: 0.10 mm aramid paper;
KLONTZ et al.: AN ACTIVELY COOLED 120-kW COAXIAL WINDING TRANSFORMER 1261
,I I I 1 \
Coolant
TubCS
-
_-
Fig. 9. Side view and end view of fabricated transformer.
TABLE IV
THERMAL
TIMECONSTANTS
Tcac 20 min.
“&an 30 sec
T / d i v 2 O p Ch2 .2 V X
Fig. 11. Typical voltage and current waveforms.
Pri Amps
Fig. 13. Conductor temperatures.
from these lossy areas, particularly the thermal contact after Deepakraj M. Divan (S’78-M’78-S’82-M’83-
fabrication, operation with unusually high current densities is SM’91) received the B.Tech. degree in electrical
engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology,
feasible for fixed frequency systems. Kanpur, in 1975. He received the M.Sc. and Ph.D.
A power density of 24.9 kWkg has been demonstrated, degrees in electrical engineering from the University
indicating that active cooling can readily enable about an of Calgary, Canada.
He worked for two years as a Development
order of magnitude increase in power transfer capability. Engineer with Philips India Ltd. In 1979, he started
The success of this research strongly encourages scaling his own concem in Pune, India, providing product
upward the concept for even higher power ratings using higher development and manufacturing services in the
power electronics and instrumentation areas. In
frequencies, higher current densities, and improved thermal 1983, he joined the Department of Electrical Engineering at the University
management. of Alberta. Canada. as an Assistant Professor. Since 1985. he has been with
the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University
of Wisconsin, Madison, where he is presently a Professor. He is also
REFERENCES Associate Director of the Wisconsin Electric Machines and Power Electronics
Consortium (WEMPEC), a group of 53 industrial sponsors supporting research
W. T. McLyman, “Ferroresonant flux coupled battery charger,” U S . in the area of power electronics and machines. He is a consultant for
Patent 4656412. various organizations including the Electric Power Research Institute and
K. Lashkari, S. E. Schladover, and E. H. Lechner, “Inductive power Oakridge National Laboratory, and is also working with several industries.
transfer to an electric vehicle,” in Con$ Rec. 1986 8th Inc. Elec. Vehicle His primary areas of interest are in power electronic converter circuits and
SYmP. control techniques. He has over 60 papers in the area as well as 12 patents.
K. W. Klontz, D. M. Divan, D. W. Novotny, and R. D. Lorenz, Dr. Divan has been a recipient of the Killam Scholarship during his Ph.D.
“Contactless battery charger system,” U.S. Patent 5 157 319. program and has also won various prize papers, including the IEEE-IAS Best
P. F. Carosa, “Separable inductive coupler,” U S . Patent 5 216402.
Paper Award for 1988-89, second-prize paper at the PCC-Yokohama 93,
M. H. Kheraluwala, D. W. Novotny, and D. M. Divan, “Design
and prize papers for the Industrial Drives Committee in 1983, 1989, 1991,
considerations for high frequency transformers,” in Con$ Rec. 1990
and 1993, and the Power Semiconductor Committee in 1990. He has been
Power Electron. Specialists Con$, pp. 734-742.
K. W. Klontz, D. M. Divan, D. W. Novotny, and R. D. Lorenz, the Program Chairman for the 1988 and 1989 Industrial Power Converter
“Contactless power delivery for mining applications,” in Con$ Rec. 1990 Committee of the IEEE-IAS, Transactions Review Chair for the Committee
Annu. Meet. Ind. Appl. Soc., pp. 1263-1269. in 1990 and 1991, and is presently Chairman of the Committee. He was
K. W. Klontz, P. J. Wolfs, R. R. Bacon, D. M. Divan, and D. W. Technical Program Chairman for PESC 91, and a Treasurer for PESC 89. He
Novotny, “An electric vehicle charging system with ‘uni versa]’ inductive was Chairman of the Education Committee in the IEEE Power Electronics
interface,” in Con$ Rec. 1993 Power Conversion Con$, Yokohama, Society during 1990 and 1991, an Adcom member since 1991, and is presently
Japan, pp. 227-232. the Technical Vice President for the society. He is a member of the National
M. P. Perry, Low Frequency Electromagnetic Design. New York: Committee on Power Electronics.
Marcel Dekker, Inc., 1985.