Design of Electromagnet for high levitation force in 3D superconducting actuator

Abstract

We have been developing a new type of 3-D superconducting actuator using the strong pinning force of HTS (high temperature superconducting) bulk. The system includes HTS bulk and two-dimensionally arranged multiple electromagnets. The application of HTS bulk enables stable levitation and suspension, and its performance is determined mainly by the spatial distribution of the generated magnetic field of the electromagnets. To enhance the levitation force in the actuator, it is necessary to design the optimized geometry of the electromagnets. The target of the design is to lead to an intensive concentration and abrupt gradient increase of the perpendicular component in the magnetic field through the HTS bulk over the electromagnets. For the optimized design of the electromagnets, we calculated the spatial distribution of the trapped magnetic field and the levitation force of the HTS bulk using 3-D FEM analysis that is adopted the critical state model.