Analysis and Experimental Evaluation of Normal Force of Linear Induction Motor for Maglev Vehicle

This paper presents the analysis and experimental of the effective normal force and power consumption in a maglev vehicle. A maglev vehicle employs the electromagnets as suspension and linear motors for propulsion. These components give the higher ride comfort but suffered from energy efficiency. Therefore, a vector control-based algorithm and various air gaps are employed to increase the propulsion efficiency and lower the system energy consumption. The effective levitation load according to the levitation gap and normal force of a linear induction motor is calculated by power consumption in a levitation system and compared with finite-element analysis results. The experiment is carried out with the full-scaled train in test line and the efficiency of a propulsion system is also presented.