Design and Finite Element Verification of Underwater Magnetic Coupler with High Fault Tolerance

Wireless power transfer technology can improve the flexibility and concealment of Autonomous Underwater Vehicle. However, due to the complex operation environments, such as microbial attachment and ocean current, the magnetic couplers become much more difficult to be docked. As a result, more stringent requirements have been put forward for underwater wireless power transfer. In this paper, a novel magnetic coupler design strategy with enhanced fault tolerance has been proposed and verified by finite element modeling technology. The results show that the anti-offset capability can be improved by 26.52% while the temperature rise can be 18% lower than the traditional design strategy. The experiments fit well with the simulation results.