WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – The Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT), in partnership with Advancing Sustainability through Powered Infrastructure for Roadway Electrification (ASPIRE) Engineering Research Center is supporting Purdue University and the Joint Transportation Research Program (JTRP) in creating a roadway that’s one of the first of its kind – a dynamic (in-motion) wireless power transfer technology (DWPT) to directly “charge” vehicles while in motion.
The project began in 2018 and has gone through multiple levels of research and study. This includes assessing the technical and financial feasibility of electric roadways in Indiana, designing a DWPT test bed using modeling and simulation techniques, and developing a better understanding of the interaction between the embedded DWPT system and the pavement structure.
The results of this study are a step toward developing how to transfer high power to longer stretches of pavement at highway speeds and equip electric vehicles (EVs) to obtain power along them.
This spring, construction will begin on a quarter-mile test bed to provide power to heavy-duty trucks on U.S. Highway 231/U.S. Highway 52 in West Lafayette. In the next four to five years, the hope is to electrify a section of an Indiana interstate for further testing.
For their project with INDOT, Purdue researchers are first testing how well the technology transfers power to electric trucks. These trucks are more limited than smaller electric vehicles in travel range due to the size and weight of their batteries. If electric trucks could charge using highways, their batteries could be reduced in size, allowing them to carry more freight and significantly reduce costs.
The technology used in the DWPT project would enable the pavement to provide power to EVs similar to how newer smartphones wirelessly charge using magnetic fields when placed on a charging pad.
“If you place a cellphone on a charger, magnetic fields come up from the charger into that phone. We’re doing something similar. The only difference is the power levels are higher, and you’re going out across a large distance from the roadway to the vehicle,” said Steve Pekarek, a Purdue engineer. “This is a simple solution. It has complicated parts, but we leave it to the vehicle manufacturers.”
To learn more about the INDOT/Cummins project, go here.
