Influence of a Medium on Capacitive Power Transfer Capability

Despite the advantages of capacitive power transfer (CPT), inductive power transfer (IPT) is still preferred. The reason: IPT systems have a gap power density in air that is 400 times greater. Conclusively, IPT can transmit more power than CPT over greater distances in air, but what about other media? This paper gives an answer on how media, different from air, influence the power transfer over different distances. First, we analyze theoretically the capacitive coupling with different media in the gap. Next, we simulate the CPT system using finite-element software and compared it with the theoretical analysis. Finally, we employ the results of the finite-element simulation in a power electronic simulation to examine the influence of the medium on the electrical power transfer.