Design and Development of Levitation and Propulsion System for a Prototype Maglev Train

Maglev trains offer smart, high-speed, eco-friendly, and energy-efficient transportation. Maglev trains work on the principle of hovering an object using electromagnets. A maglev system consists of levitation, propulsion, and guidance modules. This work presents a design and development of a levitation and a propulsion module for a maglev train. The levitation module was developed using a 500 turns/1A, 1.27cm diameter cylindrical electromagnet, and analog op-amp based ON-OFF controller. For the feedback, Hall-effect and IR sensors were used. The propulsion module was implemented using a linear induction motor (LIM) having stator length of 30cm, 7 slots, and 600 turns per slot. The LIM was excited using a three-phase supply of 100V/50Hz. The levitation system was tested for a hovering load of 200g. The LIM was tested using an aluminum bar hanging above the LIM stator and experiencing a force of 7.8N. Both modules demonstrated promising potential to develop a small prototype maglev train. The contributions of this work include full functional development of the levitation and the propulsion module for development of a small prototype maglev train. The final prototype will be used for demonstrations of maglev, experiments on control, magnetism, and LIM.