Experimental Study on Oscillation Amplitude Reduction of a Superconducting Levitation System by an Electromagnetic Shunt Damper

In this paper, we propose a new type of electromagnetic shunt damper where an air core coil is set above a floating magnet in a superconducting levitation system. The coil is connected to a shunt circuit consisting of a capacitance and a resistance. We have derived the optimal parameter values of capacitance
C
and resistance
R
from the fixed point theory after linearizing the governing equations and experimentally confirmed the effectiveness of the damper. We have also confirmed the electromagnetic coupling coefficient, which couples the mechanical system and the electric system and can be treated as a constant; as it is enhanced by the presence of the superconductor. Further, we have oscillated the superconductor and observed the amplitude of the floating magnet with and without the shunt damper. By the result, we have confirmed effective amplitude reduction by the shunt damper.