Guidance forces on high temperature superconducting Maglev test vehicle

The levitation force between superconductors and permanent magnets is directly proportional to the gradient of the magnetic field over the guideway. However, the lateral guidance force is dependent on the trapped flux in the superconductors. The stronger the trapped flux, the larger the guidance force. The guidance force provides stability to the vehicle in the lateral direction. In order to obtain both larger levitation force and guidance force, superconductors must be cooled in an appropriate applied magnetic field. A man-loading high temperature superconducting (HTS) Maglev test vehicle levitating over a permanent magnet (PM) guideway, the first such in the world, was developed and equipped with guidance force measurement instrumentation and the guidance force acting on the entire vehicle are experimentally investigated. The dependence of the entire vehicle guidance force on the field cooling height (FCH) is reported. The experiment results have proved that the guidance force of the entire vehicle is large enough for the lateral stability at an FCH height of 20 mm.