Design considerations for contact-less underwater power delivery: a systematic review and critical analysis

Abstract

Wireless power transfer (WPT) has attracted attention from academia and industry in recent years. WPT has natural electrical isolation between primary and secondary side, which ensures safe charging in an underwater environment. This breakthrough technology greatly facilitates the deep-sea power transmission. However, at the current stage the transferred power and energy efficiency level are not up to that of the WPT system in the air. The major concerns include the attenuation is seawater, extreme temperature and pressure conditions, disturbance of ocean currents, and bio-security. Three questions are answered in this paper: first, the expressions of eddy current loss and attenuation of electromagnetic wave in seawater are unified, and the influence of seawater as transmission medium on the WPT system is discussed. Second, the evolution of electromagnetic coupling structure suitable for underwater applications is studied. Third, the loss and heating effects of an underwater WPT system and the corresponding bio-fouling phenomenon are investigated. The questions above were addressed through analysis of electrical properties, coupler structures, and bio-fouling effects of the underwater WPT system. This paper will facilitate the study and research on underwater WPT applications.

Review of low‐loss wireless power transfer methods for autonomous underwater vehicles

“…where 𝜇 1 and 𝜇 2 are the permeabilities at temperatures 𝜃 1 and 𝜃 2 , respectively. The B-H curve initial permeability curve of ferrite at different temperatures is shown in Figure 4 , and the initial permeability curve of ferrite at different temperatures is shown in Figure 5, respectively [43]. It can be observed that ferrites have minimal effect on the actual sea water temperature range.…”

“…This technology was first used in air medium, wireless charging pile position of electric vehicles in transportation field [23,24], pocket wireless charger of the miniature electronic pacemaker in the medical field [25,26], and wireless transmission of industrial field and smart homes [27,28]; however it has gradually been extended to seawater medium owing to advancement and high demand for this technology [29,30]. Due to the particular complexity of seawater environment, wireless power transfer is faced with serious electromagnetic wave attenuation [31,32], irregular disturbance of seawater ocean current, difficult docking of charging equipment and other problems [33,34], and its efficient transmission has not been fundamentally solved [35][36][37][38][39].…”

Enabling Underwater Wireless Power Transfer towards Sixth Generation (6G) Wireless Networks: Opportunities, Recent Advances, and Technical Challenges

“…MESA had designed INPUD DON series devices for deep-sea regions and INPUD CAN series devices for coastal waters as shown in Figure 25. It allows 2500 rmp rotary speed and 90% efficiency for 10 W power [134]. A Japanese TRITON company also designed a buoy system to achieve power and data transmission simultaneously.…”

A Review on Research Challenges, Limitations and Practical Solutions for Underwater Wireless Power Transfer

“…IF Lopes et al [12] have discussed a maximum efficiency tracking strategy for UWPT. A systematic review and critical analysis on UWPT is presented [13]. In [14], Tamura et al have focused on some pivotal elements to improve coupling coefficients for underwater wireless power transfer (UWPT).…”