Enhanced Levitation Performance of Magnetic Levitation System Using HTS Racetrack Coil

We have studied a magnetic levitation system including an HTS bulk as magnetic shield. This system consists of a ferromagnetic rail, HTS bulks, and HTS coil. In this paper, the vertical attractive force was discussed in two types of the analytical models. First, the model with the racetrack coil was proposed. We analyzed the vertical attractive force depending on the length of the coil's straight section. As a results, the maximum vertical attractive force became large with increasing a straight section, and the force reached approximately 20 kg when the straight section was 1 m. Next, we proposed a scaled-up model which was a 10-fold scaled-up of the HTS racetrack coil, HTS bulk, and ferromagnetic rail assuming an actual train size. Here we considered that one vehicle body, whose weight was 25 t, was levitated by four racetrack coils. Hence the vertical attractive force of each racetrack coil needed to be about 6.25 t. According to the analysis, the maximum vertical attractive force was about 16 t. The force was generated by one racetrack coil. Therefore, the vertical attractive force was enough larger than the weight of the actual vehicle body.