Design and construction of a small-scale model of a high-temperature superconducting magnetically levitated vehicle

The design of a small-scale model of a magnetically levitated vehicle is presented in the paper. The model has been constructed on the basis of the calculation of the magnetic field and forces between permanent magnets and high temperature superconducting materials prepared by different fabrication techniques. The fabrication of the superconductor play a fundamental role in designing the vehicle since large enough levitation forces can be achieved only with superconductors that have large pinning forces. The fabrication processes, the design with a special emphasis on the calculation of the magnetic field and model construction are reported