Dynamic Modeling and Transient Response of a Rigid-Body Inductrack Maglev System

Abstract

The Inductrack system, which provides a novel way to achieve magnetic levitation by using Halbach arrays of permanent magnets (PMs), has been extensively studied in the past two decades. The transient responses of the Inductrack system in operation are physically unavoidable and unignorable. Due to the complexities of the electro-magneto-mechanical coupling in the system, most analyses of the Inductrack system rely on steady-state results, and consequently cannot fully capture the dynamic behaviors of the system in transient scenarios. In this article, a new 3-DOF transient model of the Inductrack system is proposed. This model describes the rigid-body motion of the Inductrack vehicle with axial (longitudinal) and vertical (transverse) displacements and pitch rotation, and it is derived without any assumption of steady-state quantities. Compared to a recently available 2-DOF lumped-mass model developed by the authors, the inclusion of the pitch rotation in the new model results in a much more complicated mechanism of electro-magneto-mechanical coupling. Numerical results show that the pitch rotation can have significant effect on the dynamic response and stability of the Inductrack system, which necessities vibration control for the safe operation of the Inductrack system.