Efficiency Improvement of Underwater Midrange Inductive Contactless Power Transmission Via a Relay Resonator

Inductive contactless power transmission (ICPT) offers a safe and convenient means of delivering energy underwater. However, ICPT is capable of transferring power effectively only within a near-distance range (millimeters). In recent years, magnetic resonance coupled power transmission (MRCPT), which can wirelessly deliver power across a distance of meters, has been introduced and studied. Nevertheless, MRCPT is usually operated at a very high resonance frequency (MHz) and is unavailable for underwater applications because of the considerable power loss in water. In this paper, we present an ICPT system with a relay resonator for a midrange efficiency improvement. The proposed system is based on an (inductor-capacitor) LC resonance circuit, rather than magnetic resonance. The system operates at a lower resonance frequency than the typical MRCPT system. A theoretical model is introduced for the proposed system using coupled mode theory. Theoretical treatments and an analysis of the system parameters are presented for improving the efficiency in underwater environments. The inductance and stray capacitance of a relay coil with a flat spiral profile are calculated. The experimental results indicate that the proposed system can substantially enhance the power transmission efficiency under water in midrange distances (=10 cm) compared with the ICPT system without a relay resonator.