Equivalent Circuit Modeling and Analysis
of
Metamaterial Based Wireless Power Transfer
1
Webster Adepoju, Student Member, IEEE, 1
Indranil Bhattacharya, Member, IEEE
2Ismail Fidan, 1Nasr Esfahani Ebrahim, 10latunji Abiodun, 2Ranger Buchanan,
1Trapa Banik 1Muhammad Enagi Bima, Student Member, IEEE
1
Department
of
Electrical and Computer Engineering, 2
Department
of
Manufacturing and Engineering Technology
Tennessee Technological University
Cookeville, 38505, TN, USA
woadepoju42@tntech.edu, ibhattacharya@tntech.edu
Abstract-In
this study, an equivalent circuit model is pre-
sented to emulate the behavior
of
a metamaterial-based wireless
power transfer system. For this purpose, the electromagnetic field
simulation
of
the proposed system is conducted in ANSYS high-
frequency
structure
simulator.
In
addition, a numerical analysis
of
the proposed structure is explored to evaluate its transfer
characteristics. The power transfer efficiency
of
the proposed
structure is represented by the transmission scattering parameter.
While some methods, including interference theory
and
effective
medium theory have been exploited to explain the physics
mechanism
of
MM-based
WPT
systems, some
of
the
reactive
parameters and the basic physical interpretation have not been
clearly expounded. In contrast to existing theoretical model, the
proposed approach focuses on the effect
of
the system parameters
and transfer coils on the system transfer characteristics and its
effectiveness in analyzing complex circuit. Numerical solution
of
the system transfer characteristics, including the scattering
parameter and power transfer efficiency is conducted in Matlab.
The calculation results based on numerical estimation validates
the full wave electromagnetic simulation results, effectively veri-
fying the accuracy
of
the analytical model.
Index Terms-Wireless Power Transfer (WPT), Finite Ele-
ment Analysis (FEA), Scattering parameter, Metamaterial, Power
Transfer Efficiency (PTE), HFSS, MatLab.
I.
INTRODUCTION
0 VER the past years, Wireless Power Transfer (WPT)
has demonstrated tremendous capability
as
a power
transmission mechanism in mobile computing [1]-[3], wireless
charging
of
biomedical body implants [4], [5], consumer
electronics and wireless charging
of
Electric Vehicles (EV)
[6], [7]. However, despite its increasing penetration, reliabil-
ity concerns stemming from high power dissipation, leakage
Electromagnetic Field (EMF), and low power transmission
efficiency (PTE) for wide range WPT systems remain largely
unresolved.
To
this end, attention has shifted to metamaterial
(MM)
as a viable alternative for range enhancement and
performance improvement in
WPT
systems. Negative-index
MMs (NIMs) are the first and most investigated
of
all MM
structures
[8]
and typify a generic description for left handed
materials, having a negative refractive index, n,
as
depicted in
(1) (electric permittivity, Ef =
-1,
and magnetic permeability,
µf
=
-1),
and hence supports perfect lensing [9], [10].
(1)
When operated at resonance, electromagnetic
(EM)
fields
are confined inside the resonators, leading to a periodic ex-
change
of
electric and magnetic energy. Outside the resonators,
however, the EM fields decay evanescently and do not carry
away energy unless coupled to the tail
of
the evanescent
wave
of
another resonator [ 11]. With NIM, the amplitude
of
evanescent waves can be enhanced such that the distance
between two resonators are virtually smaller. The strategy
for
NIM
design borders on reconstructing and modulating
its structural properties, including effective permeability (µJ ),
and effective permittivity ( t
f)
coupled with a tuning
of
design
parameters such that the reconstructed
MM
exhibits left-
handed characteristics
(µf
< 0 and Ef < 0).
Concretely, the evanescent wave amplification property
of
the proposed
MM
is
of
significant interest in this study. This is
explained by the fact that magnetic resonant coupling depends
on evanescent wave amplification
of
near magnetic field. Bear-
ing in mind that inductive WPT system and evanescent wave
amplifier utilize only the magnetic field for power transfer,
it
therefore goes without saying that a negative real part
of
effective permeability
(µf
< 0) is a satisfactory requirement
for the design under test to achieve evanescent wave amplifica-
tion and negative refractive index [12].
To
this end, this paper
presents an equivalent circuit model to explore the transfer
characteristics
of
an MM-based WPT system. While several
methods, such as interference theory [13], [14], transmission
line circuit model [15], [16],and effective medium theory
[17]
have been widely exploited in literature to explain the physics
mechanism
of
MM-based WPT system, some
of
the reactive
parameters and the basic physical interpretation have not been
clearly expounded. In contrast to existing theoretical model,
the proposed methodology focuses on the effect
of
system
parameters and transfer coils on the transfer characteristics
of
the system which is pertinent in analyzing complex systems.
Specifically, a four-coil structure comprising the drive coil
(dr), transmitting coil
(tx),
receiving coil
(rx),
and load
coil
(l)
is utilized for the analysis. Further, a performance
comparison
of
the four coil
WPT
structure with the insertion
of
MM
and without
MM
is analyzed both analytically and
in finite element simulation, the MM being posited between
the transmitting and receiving coils. Specifically, the main
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