Flux-canceling electrodynamic maglev suspension. II. Test results and scaling laws

Electrodynamic suspensions (EDS) are highly undamped and require some form of active control or a secondary suspension to achieve adequate ride quality. This paper reports on efforts to develop a version of EDS that uses controllable magnetic forces to eliminate the need for any secondary suspension. The magnetic forces act directly on the guideway and avoid the need to have unsprung weight and a secondary suspension. It is shown that the energy required to effect this control can be less than 1% of the energy stored in the suspension magnets, so a modest size controller can be used. The same controller can also provide lift at very low speeds and thereby eliminate the need for a separate low-speed suspension system. A set of scaling laws is described which is used to size a full-scale high-temperature superconductor (HTSC)-based suspension magnet. The test fixture was also used to verify the use of "zero velocity" lift, where ac excitation is used in the suspension coils to achieve lift at low train velocity.