A 3-D Topology Optimization of Magnetic Cores for Wireless Power Transfer Device

This paper presents the topology optimization of the magnetic core for a wireless power transfer (WPT) device. In this optimization, the coil and magnetic-core shapes for WPT are represented by the Gaussian basis functions. They are sequentially optimized using the genetic algorithm and 3-D finite-element analysis so that the coupling coefficient of the WPT device is maximized. Moreover, a robust optimization method is proposed to keep the interlinkage flux as large as possible against misalignment in the coils. It is shown by the computational and experimental results that the optimized device outperforms the conventional devices