Electrified Roadways
Large penetration of EVs will require widespread deployment of publicly accessible charging infrastructure. This charging infrastructure can be similar to gas stations, but there is an opportunity to provide additional benefits by taking advantage of the flexibility inherent in electric power delivery and delivering power wirelessly to EVs 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 the other major trends transforming road transportation: connectivity, autonomy, and ridesharing which could reduce the number of vehicles required to meet our transportation needs and dramatically improve the sustainability of road transportation.
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, supporting infrastructure, and accessibility.
This project also aims to achieve Engineering Workforce Development (EWD) with the goal of training a diverse engineering workforce capable of developing and deploying electrified roadways. Furthermore, the project aims to advance Diversity and Culture of Inclusion (DCI) goals synergistic with 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