Electrified Roadways
Widespread EV adoption will require large scale public charging infrastructure similar to gas stations. We have the opportunity to provide additional benefits by taking advantage of the flexibility inherent in electric power delivery, and wireless EV charging from electrified roadways. Such innovative charging strategies could overcome some of the major shortcomings of EVs related to battery technology and accelerate their adoption. Electrified roadways can also accommodate and leverage other major trends transforming road transportation: connectivity, autonomy, and ridesharing. These developments could reduce the number of vehicles required to meet our transportation needs and dramatically improve the road transportation experience.
The objective of this project is to help accelerate the adoption of all classes of EVs by pushing the performance frontier of electric roads with embedded dynamic and semi-dynamic wireless charging systems in terms of wireless power delivery, construct-ability, durability, maintainability, packaging, interoperability, standards, safety, EMI/EMC, and supporting infrastructure.
This project also aims to achieve electrification workforce development (EWD) with the goal of training a skilled workforce capable of developing and deploying electrified roadways.
Tasks:
- Modeling, Design and Implementation of Pavement Structures with Embedded Charging Units
- Thermal Modeling of Capacitive Wireless Charging in Asphalt Pavements
- Investigation of System Interoperability for Dynamic Inductive Wireless Charging
- Packaging of Embedded Electronics, Connections, and Power Distribution for Dynamic Wireless Charging
- Hardening Infrastructure for Secure Smart Wireless Charging
- Transportation Asset Management Platform for Electric Road Systems