Design Considerations of EM-PM Hybrid Levitation and Propulsion Device for Magnetically Levitated Vehicle

This paper deals with the design considerations of electromagnet/permanent magnet (EM-PM) hybrid levitation and propulsion device for magnetically levitated (maglev) vehicle. The machine requires PMs with high coercive force in order to levitate the vehicle by only PMs, and propulsion force is supplied by long-stator linear synchronous motor (LSM). The advantages of this configuration are an increasing levitation airgap length and decreasing total weight of the vehicle, because of the zero-power levitation control. Several design considerations such as machine structure, manufacturing, and control strategy are described. Moreover, this paper proposes the novel translator structure with segmented U-shape magnets for easy manufacturing. In order to verify the design scheme and feasibility of control strategy, dynamic test set is implemented and tested.