Effects of Airgap Length Variation in Frictionless Linear Induction Transportation Systems

Aapplications of linear induction machines (LIM) in electric propulsion have been investigated in the past few decades. The advantages of LIM to be applied in the propulsion include easy maintenance and high acceleration/deceleration to name a few. One of the applications is to combine the LIM with Maglev to achieve frictionless propulsion system. Using Finite Element Analysis (FEA), it has been found that the airgap length has various impacts on the force characteristics of LIM under low and high linear speeds. This will support the design of airgap length of LIM for high speed frictionless propulsion applications. In addition, the effect of secondary electric conductivity on the force characteristics has been explored.