Design and Analysis of a Prototype Linear Motor Driving System for HTS Maglev Transportation

High temperature superconductors (HTSs) can produce a strong magnetic levitation force with self-stabilizing feature and hence have attracted much attention for applications in maglev transportation systems. For the linear motion of transportation, a linear drive is an obvious advantage. This paper presents the design and analysis of a permanent magnet (PM) linear synchronous motor for driving a small-scale prototype vehicle with PM-HTS bulks used for the levitation. The linear motor consists of PMs on the vehicle sides and stator windings in the slots of side tracks. The three phase windings are supplied by a 3-phase inverter, and are controlled with a brushless DC control scheme. Analysis and calculation details of magnetic fields and driving force about the motor prototype are presented.