Electro Mechanic Design and Test of Conductive Electrical Road System - Overall System Design and Protection

Today's transportation system is based on the use of fossil fuels. Due to the finite amount of these resources on planet earth, these resources will eventually run out. A lot of research on electric cars has been made in recent years. Much of this research has been focused on the batteries within the car as a power source. However, with most designs so far, the vehicles must stop to recharge the batteries making long distance trips extremely difficult. One way to erase this problem is the development of an electric road. This idea would eliminate previous problems by allowing the vehicles to draw power from the road while driving. However so far there are no inexpensive alternatives available. The goal for this research project is to design and build a model of an electric road from the ideas by Dan Zethraeus. This master's thesis investigates the roads thermal and magnetic properties, designed the overvoltage protection, and simulated what happens if a lightning bolt were to strike the road.