Condition monitoring for propulsion coils of superconducting Maglev systems using an on-board radio interferometer system

Superconducting magnetic levitation (Maglev) systems require a large number of ground coils: propulsion coils and levitation-guidance coils, therefore how to monitor the condition of ground coils is a big issue for the real operation. In our previous papers, it is shown that an on-board radio interferometer system is effective for detecting and locating a partial discharge (PD) source occurring in an abnormal propulsion coil. We mounted the two radio interferometer systems on a test vehicle consisting of a bogie and a car for moving-detection and location of a PD source occurring in an abnormal propulsion coil arranged on the U-shaped guideway of Miyazaki Maglev test track. It is shown that the abnormal propulsion coil could be found by using the on-board radio interferometer system while the test vehicle was driven at the speed of 50km/h.