High-temperature superconducting magnetic levitation system with V-shaped permanent magnet guideway: Experiment and its parameter optimization

Abstract

As the external magnetic field source in high-temperature superconducting (HTS) maglev systems, the permanent magnet guideway (PMG) is crucial in determining the levitation and guidance performance. The PMG structure especially has a significant impact on levitation and guidance performance. The previous simulation results have shown that the V-shaped PMG can significantly improve the guidance force and increase the levitation force of the HTS maglev system compared to the horizontal PMG. However, experiments were not conducted to validate the simulation results in the previous study. Building upon earlier work, this study designs and fabricates a V-shaped PMG and compares it with a horizontal PMG. The experimental results verify that the V-shaped PMG has better levitation performance than the horizontal PMG. Moreover, this paper explains why using a V-shaped PMG can improve the levitation and guidance performance and explores the effects of the permanent magnet array and the gap between the two sides of the V-shaped PMG on the levitation and guidance forces. The results indicate that the symmetric permanent magnet array and reducing the gap between the V-shaped PMG can improve the levitation performance to some extent. This study verified the feasibility of applying the V-shaped PMG and promoting the engineering application of the next-generation HTS maglev system.