Inductive systems for electric vehicles: Optimization of the charging units embedded into road pavement

Dynamic inductive charging system for Electric Vehicles (EV) is a promising technology to increase the environmental sustainability of road transport sector in the future years. This on-the-road charging system involves a new charging infrastructure network made of prefabricated Charging Units (CUs) embedded into the bituminous road pavement. In this way, traditional roads (t-roads) are converted in electrified roads (e-roads). Based on previous Authors’ studies, CU is considered as a box with a void in which the electrical technologies are held. The present research focuses on the optimization of void CU shape and dimension in order to suggest different cross-sectional geometries. Since CU has not to negatively affect the structural performance of pavement, a specific study using a Finite Element Modelling (FEM) approach is conducted. In these FEM simulations, various load positions are considered to describe cross wander distance of Electric Vehicles compered to CU location into bituminous pavements. Therefore, as a result of this study a set of void CU geometries and dimensions is proposed, obtaining two main goals: satisfy the electrical technology needs, while preserving the pavement structural performance.