Levitation and guidance force relaxations of the single-seeded and multi-seeded YBCO superconductors

The stable levitation and guidance forces at higher force levels are important parameters for technological applicability of high temperature superconductors (HTSs) in Maglev and Flywheel energy storage systems. In this study, we have investigated the levitation and guidance force relaxation of both the single-seeded and multi-seeded YBCOs for different (HTS)-permanent magnetic guideway (PMG) arrangements in different cooling heights (CH). The measured saturated force values of Halbach PMG arrangements are bigger than the maximum force values of other PMGs. It is determined that the normalized magnetic levitation force (MLF) and normalized guidance force (GF) relaxation rate values decrease while the relaxation rates increase with increasing magnetic pole number and the effective external magnetic field area for both the single-seeded and multi-seeded YBCO. Also it can be said that the force stability at the higher force value of Halbach PMG arrangement indicates that the relaxation quality of Halbach PMG is better than that of the others. Additionally, it can be said that both the MLF and GF relaxation qualities of the multi-seeded YBCOs are better than that of the single-seeded ones. This magnetic force and relaxation results of the single-seeded and multi-seeded YBCOs are useful to optimize the loading capacity and lateral reliability of HTS Maglev and similar magnetic bearing systems. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.