Feasibility of a goods transportation system with a superconducting magnetic levitation guide -: load characteristics of a magnetic levitation guide using a bulk high-Tc superconductor

This paper proposes a goods transportation system with a pinning-type superconducting magnetic levitation guide setting in a vacuum passage and describes the system outline. Load characteristics of the superconducting levitation guide used this system are analyzed by a newly developed electromagnetic field analysis program; then, it is evaluated for whether it has sufficient load characteristics as a non-contact guide for this system. Calculation results show that the superconducting levitation guide has sufficient levitation force in the large gap, which become an effective space for thermal insulation between the magnetic rail at room temperature and superconductors cooled to cryogenic temperatures. Comparison between calculated and measured values was done to examine program validity in a small model; it showed good agreement both quantitatively and qualitatively. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.