2021 IEEE 6th International Conference on Computing, Communication and Automation (ICCCA)

Aurel Vlaicu University of Arad, Romania. Dec 17-19, 2021

Electromagnetic Design and Analysis of a Magnetic

Plug for Next Generation Electric Vehicles
Mahbubur Rahman Kiran1, Omar Farrok2, Member, IEEE, Md. Rabiul Islam3, Senior Member, IEEE,
and Rabindra Nath Shaw4, Senior Member, IEEE
1
Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Green University of Bangladesh, Dhaka, Bangladesh
2
Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Ahsanullah University of Science and Technology, Dhaka, Bangladesh,
3
School of Electrical Computer and Telecommunications Engineering, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, Australia,
4
2021 IEEE 6th International Conference on Computing, Communication and Automation (ICCCA) | 978-1-6654-1473-9/21/$31.00 ©2021 IEEE | DOI: 10.1109/ICCCA52192.2021.9666266

Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering, Galgotias University, Greater Noida, India
kiran@eee.green.edu.bd, omarruet@gmail.com, omar.eee@aust.edu, mrislam@uow.edu.au, rabindra@drshaw.in

Abstract— At present, most of the electric vehicle transfers
electrical power to grid or other vehicles by electrical
conduction. Recently a novel concept of transferring
electrical power through a universal magnetic plug has been
proposed where the electromagnetic design of the magnetic
plug is the key to optimize the system performance and is a
multiphysics problem. In this paper, a systematic approach is
presented to design and analyze the magnetic plug to push the
technology further. Advanced soft magnetic material based
different toroidal shape cores are considered. Initially plug size
is selected considering power transfer capability, core
saturation, core loss, and power quality. By analyzing the
simulation results with ANSYS/ Ansoft software, the optimum
toroidal core is finally selected. The electrical and magnetic
properties of the magnetic plug are investigated and presented
along with magnetic field intensity, magnetic flux density, and
winding configuration. It is expected that the approach would
play noteworthy role for the next generation progress of the
power transfer between electric vehicle to vehicle/grid.
Keywords— Amorphous, electric vehicle chargers, grid-to-
vehicle, universal power connector, vehicle-to-grid, vehicle-to-
vehicle.
I. INTRODUCTION
Electric vehicles (EVs) are progressively fetching the
foremost private conveyance brand in numerous nations,
particularly in European countries [1]. This stands the
consequence of EV commercialization plans encouraged by
the government, environmentalist, policymaker, and
lawmaker throughout the world. The plan includes
environment change, the growing greenhouse gas
production, and the distress of decreasing fossil energies.
The evolution strategies from administrations to guarantee
zero-carbon discharges from vehicles take the automakers
below stress to move from internal combustion engine (ICE)
based vehicles to EVs. Also the foremost EV manufacturer,
supplementary overriding ICE automakers in the globe are
wounding despondent their ICE constructions and embarking
to assemble EVs [2], beside numerous new EV jump-ups.
There are competitions in EV industry governance
amongst the automakers to produce their goods to be
leading as soon as possible in the marketplace. It is
imagined that the power required to charge the EVs will be
a main load to the utility grid in the future, mainly when a
high perception of EV would be charged every time it is
unused at house or in car parks areas. In this situation, the
grid can incorporate erratically great dissimilarities in the
load claim. For example, if a considerable amount of EVs is
getting charged at the identical time, there is a prospective
of not having adequate production to meet the usage that can
result in a variation in the grid frequency and voltage [3]–[5].
However, it would be diminished if the consumption of EV
batteries is maximized with intellectual and effective
incorporation. Appreciation goes to the idea of the smart
grid structures that will permit contacts of novel distributed
power generators, for instance green energy sources, power
storage as well as EV to create the next generation power
scheme more supportable. The EV batteries that are
normally furnished with power battery packs, rated from
several tens to hundreds of kW [1], can be considered as
mobile distributed sources or point of energy that are
integrated directly to the utility while EVs parked.
To achieve the advantage of the EV with its applications,
research desires to be conducted on the three fields of the
EV: (1) battery system, (2) charging scheme, and (3)
charging connector criterions. The improvement of the
aforementioned parts would mark EVs more useful in
automated power applications [1]. Current know-hows
create EVs supplementary energy-effective and have a
lengthier range, however, additional research works should
be carried out to confirm that EV arrangement can be
integrated into the grid infrastructures efficiently. This
means that there is the need for the prospect of including the
EV integrated to numerous systems, that states the idea of
vehicle-to-K (V2K), here K stands for diverse entities which
can link to an EV. Presently, K is regarded as the grid (V2G),
domestic power consumers in the custom of vehicle-to-
home (V2H) or alternative EV (V2V) [6].
The vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) energy transfer scheme
offers a great prospect to offer the suppleness and efficacy
of its charging for EV vendors. They may handle their saved
power autonomously amongst themselves. Yet, the current
energy integrator in the V2G scheme may not be well-suited
with its application in V2V scheme. In this mode, both EVs
are adjusted straight to each other. The disadvantage of the
conventional V2V connection is that they require software
changes for charge controlling between two EVs with the
same hardware configuration of both EVs and charging
systems. The inclusive efficacy is low due to the presence of
four power converters. In the conventional V2K topology,
the same electrical power plug cannot be used for V2V and
V2G connection. The concept of a universal magnetic plug
is presented in [1] that offers the advantage of using the
same magnetic plug. But the main components of a
magnetic plug are the magnetic core and windings, which is
required to be analyzed in the multiphysics environment. It
is therefore essential to conduct research for designing

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optimal magnetic power plug that can be incorporated in all execution of the projected power connector for the quick
EV set-up methods. This means EVs can be charged suitably power transfer system. The V to G or G to V arrangement is
on all conditions. accomplished with the magnetic plug. Appreciation goes to
the power converter technologies when the universal
In this regard, this paper proposes the optimal design, magnetic power connector is connected to their halves,
electromagnetic analysis, and characterization of a magnetic power link up is established.
plug along with charging converters for the V2K
arrangements, that can maintenance all likely processes or
methods of power transmission from the EV batteries III. MATHEMATICAL MODELING OF THE MAGNETIC PLUG
counting different EV set ups with the suggested magnetic The proposed magnetic power connector is
connector. The power transmission in the projected mathematically designed based on all parasitic constituents
connector can be done with a magnetic connection made of
two magnetic fragments. This will certify the improved
efficacy and galvanic isolation between the universal power
i cexs C exs
plug of the EV.
II. THE PROPOSED MAGNETIC PLUG i ex R ex i lex L ex c
ils Lsc Rsc isc
The proposed universal power connector consists of
power electronics-based converter and high frequency i lLm c
ics
v ex C vcs
magnetic link (HFML). Characterization of the HFML with
i cex ex Lm Csc
amorphous magnetic constituents for power converter
application are presented in [7]–[9]. It is analyzed that
application of the amorphous material, Vitroperm minimizes Fig. 2. Electrical equivalent network of the magnetic link with respect to
the core loss significantly [10]. In the suggested magnetic excitation side.
connector, electrical power is transferred through the HFML
instead of direct electrical connection as shown in Fig. 1. The such as leakage inductances and stray capacitances
recent EVs are incorporated with associated board charger under high frequency conditions and the electrical
and charging plug which can access both ac and dc power. equivalent circuitry is established as depicted in Fig. 2. It
The charging plug is developed considering the different principally incorporates a toroid shaped core, distributed
plug criterions, like SAE J1772, SAE Combo, or CHAdeMO winding segments. The voltages and currents of the HFML
[11]–[15]. can be expressed as:
dilex d (ilex  ilsc )
Grid
vex Rexiex  Lex  N p Lm (1)
dt dt
AC DC d (ilex  ilsc ) dic
charging vcs N s Lm  Rsc isc  Lsc ls (2)
DC
station dt dt
On board charger Single
phase
EV Battery d (vex  Rexiex ) d (vcs  Rscisc )
DC DC DC AC AC
supply
iex ilex  (Cex  Cexs )  Cexs
DC
connector
DC DC connector dt dt
SAE J1772, SAE Combo, or CHAdeMO (3)
(a)
d (vex  Rexiex ) d (vcs  Rscisc )
isc ilsc  Cexs  Csc (4)
DAB converter dt dt
Grid converter
AC DC AC where vex vsʹ, isʹ and iex are the voltages and currents of
DC AC DC primary and secondary, respectively, with respect to
excitation side. The transient magnetic flux, Iex (t )
Magnetic plug developed in case of square voltage as the excitation can be
(b) precisely derived as:
Fig. 1. Charging arrangement of the EV. (a) Conventional EV charging
scheme and (b) the proposed V2G/G2V scheme for quick charging linked to ­ Im T pd T pd
utility grid. ° (t  )...................0 d t d
°
Iex (t ) ® T / 4 4 2
(5)
Power integrator and the probable EV charging ° Im (t  pd )................... pd d t d T
3 T T
¯° T / 4
arrangements are illustrated in Fig. 1. These principles do not pd
4 2
include the V to V application. The conventional charging
system is illustrated in Fig. 1(a) for ac and dc power. The where Tpd is the time period of the primary excitation and
proposed universal magnetic The proposed plug includes a Im is the magnitude of Iex (t ) . The equation of generated
half of a two halves of toroidal shaped core for transferring
voltage can be found following the Faraday’s law of
power between two EVs.
electromagnetic induction as:
The proposed link offers the charging system as universal
for all kinds of EV connection. Fig. 1(b) depicts the

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 ­ Im T pd
°N p ...................0 d t d
° T pd / 4 2 TABLE I. PROPERTIES OF DIFFERENT CORE MATERIALS
vex (t ) ®
° N Im ...................T pd d t d T Parameter Value
° p
T pd / 4 2
pd 2605S3A Vitroperm FT-3M
¯ Density (kg/m3) 7,290 7,350 7,300
Continuous service 150 120 100
Physical temperature (ºC)
­ T pd
°Vm ...................0 d t d Curie temperature (ºC) 358 600 570
° 2 Thickness (μm) 18 14–20 18
® (6) Saturation (T) 1.41 1.24 1.23
T
° V ................... pd d t d T Permeability 35,000 20,000 15,000
° m
¯ 2
pd
Magnetic Resistivity (μ-cm) 138 115 120
Core loss (W/kg) at 0.2T, 60 80 120
100kHz
Mm
where Vm Np is the magnitude of the induced
T pd / 4 The load curves of the HFML for individual size of the
voltage in the excitation coil. The Root Mean Square value core and winding is studied. The ability of conveying the
of the primary voltage can be found as: peak value of power from excitation to secondary winding is
found from the load curves plot.
1 ­ 2 T pd T pd ½
Vrms ®Vm ( )  (Vm ) 2 ( )¾ = Vm (7) Start
Tp ¯ 2 2 ¿
Transformer
Under square voltage excitation to the excitation side of toroidal core
the magnetic link, triangular flux is generated in the core
and including, the corresponding core loss as found as [16]:

Pc _ sqr FWCsqr (k f exp Bmq ) (8) Combination of Variation of

distributed core-dimension and
winding and core air gap
where FWCsqr is the flux waveform coefficient for to square
voltage and it is equal to S / 4 . k, p, and q are the constants,
which can be obtained from the core loss data provided by
the core developers.
Investigate for peak power
IV. DESIGN AND CHARACTERIZATION OF THE PROPOSED
MAGNETIC PLUG
To design a squeezed, less weighty, reduced size, and
effective power connector, the choice of an appropriate core Observation of distortion in
power
constituent for developing the high frequency magnetic
connector is considerably significant. The amorphous alloys
are becoming well known for its excellent magnetic
properties. They are soft magnetic material and do not have
the crystalline structure. Literature review reveals the main Reasonable?
benefits of the amorphous metal like its high value of flux
density, high resistivity, and reduced core loss at high Yes
frequency applications. It has also been studied that the
losses of the amorphous materials are the lowest comparing Solution
to that of other magnetic materials. In addition, the market Analysis of
price of the amorphous magnetic materials has reduced magnetic
properties by
noticeably in present times as the matured technology of the No using FEA
mass production. Target ?

The electromagnetic and physical characteristics of Yes

several magnetic materials for the core are enlisted in Table
I [17], [18]. The design process of the proposed universal
magnetic power connector is shown in Fig. 3. At the starting
of the design the number of turns for the developed
magnetic connector or link is designed and embark of the
magnetic core begins with the usual dimensions. The
efficacy of the HFML is greatly exposed to the adjustment
of the core dimension, core element, and scheme of
windings.
End
Fig. 3. Design flowchart of the proposed magnetic power connector.
Considering the electrical and magnetic characteristics
of the HFML, the fewer imperative sections of the core is
sidestepped to reduce the dimension. Fig. 4 shows the 3-D
geometry of the magnetic power connector with two
different cross sectional area. Fig. 4(a) illustrates the design
with 0.01 cm air gap and 2.5 cm2 area. Fig. 4(b) represents
the design with 0.02 cm air gap and 5 cm2 cross sectional
area.

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 Amorphous core The transient magnetic flux density and intensity are
depicted in Figs. 9 and 10, respectively. The magnetic flux is
uniformly distributed when the model is simulated with 5
cm2 cross-sectional area of the core. Load curves of the
magnetic power plug is illustrated in Fig. 11. The highest
power of 1.98 kW is found when 3.5 Ω external load is
applied at the secndary of the magnetic plug. Table II
includes the specifications of the designed universal
Distributed winding magnetic power connector.
segments
Cross-sectional
area of the core
Air gap between
two core segments
(a) (b)
Fig. 4. 3-D geometry of the magnetic power connector: (a) 2.5 cm2 and (b)
5 cm2 cross-sectional area. B(T)
8.024e-2
7.800e-2
Simulation results are shown in Figs. 5–10. In the 6.779e-2
5.644e-2
simulation results, W represents the condition of 0.01 cm air 4.515e-2

gap and 2.5 cm2 cross-sectional area, X is for 0.01 cm air gap (a) 3.385e-2
2.482e-2 (b)
and 5 cm2, Y is for 0.02 cm air gap and 2.5 cm2, and Z 1.692e-2
5.642e-3
denotes the dimension of 0.02 cm air gap and 5 cm2 area. 9.037e-8
0.000e+0
The input-output voltage and load currents are shown in
Figs. 5 and 6, respectively. The core loss comparison is
depicted in Fig. 7. Lowest core loss is found for the
dimension of 0.01 cm air gap and 2.5 cm2 area. Fig. 8 shows
the output power comparison for different core dimensions.
The highest power is transferred for 5 cm2 cross-sectional Time: 0.05 ms
area of the core.
(c) (d)
100
Z Fig. 9. Transient mgnetic flux density for different core dimensions: (a) W,
Voltage (V)

50 Primary (b) X, (c) Y, and (d) Z.

W
0
X Y
-50

-100
0.03 0.04 0.05
Time (ms)
Fig. 5. Input-output voltage for different core dimensions.
y H(A/m)
30 7.928e-2
20 X Z
7.567e-2
6.779e-2
Current (A)

10 5.642e-2
4.514e-2
0 (a) 3.385e-2 (b)
-10 W Y 2.482e-2
1.692e-2
-20 5.642e-3
9.037e-8
-30
0.03 0.04 0.05 0.000e+0
Time (ms)
Fig. 6. Secondary winding currents for different core dimensions.

4
Core loss (W)

3 X
Z
2 Time: 0.05 ms
(c) (d)
1 W Fig. 10. Transient mgnetic flux intensity for different core dimensions : (a)
Y
0 W, (b) X, (c) Y, and (d) Z.
0.03 0.04 0.05
Time (ms)
TABLE II. SPECIFICATIONS OF THE PROPOSED MAGNETIC POWER
Fig. 7. Core loss comparison for different core dimensions.
CONNECTOR
2 Z X Parameter Value
Power (kW)

Ac1=2.5 cm2 Ac2=5 cm2

1 Primary input voltage (V) 100 100
W Y Np/Ns 21/21 21/21
Core volume (cm3) 90.64 152.18
Output power (kW) 1.85 1.98
0
0.03 0.04 0.05 Operating frequency (kHz) 100 100
Time (ms) External load (Ω) 3.5 3.5
Fig. 8. Output power comparison for different core dimensions.

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2.5
Z
X [6]
2 charging plug-in hybrid electric vehicles on a residential distribution
Power (kW)
1.5
1 material based core for isolated power converters used in wave energy
W generation system,” IET Electric Power Appl., vol. 14, no. 5, pp. 733–
Y 741, May 2020.
0.5
100 kHz square excitation
0 the optimized high frequency transformer using nanocrystalline and
1 3 5 7
Load (Ω)
Fig. 11. Load characteristics of the proposed magnetic power connector for
different core dimensions.
V. CONCLUSION
In this content, a universal magnetic plug topology is
analyzed for supporting different set-up conditions for next
generation electric vehicles (EVs), which would substitute
the conventional electrical power plug for EV charging
systems. In the recommended power connector, the power is
transferred with the magnetic connection, that guarantees the
higher effectiveness as well as offers galvanic isolation
between the two different power converter circuits.
Acceptance of the projected plug by the EV trades, it is
predicted that an improved customary will be developed for
the proposed magnetic link. It is recommended that, the
characterization of the suggested universal magnetic power
connector would play noteworthy role for the progress of EV
charging technology in the future.
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