Dynamic interaction analysis of actively controlled maglev vehicles and guideway girders considering nonlinear electromagnetic forces

This study intends to explore dynamic interaction behaviors between actively controlled maglev vehicle and guideway girders by considering the nonlinear forms of electromagnetic force and current exactly. For this, governing equations for the maglev vehicle with ten degrees of freedom are derived by considering the nonlinear equation of electromagnetic force, surface irregularity, and the deflection of the guideway girder. Next, equations of motion of the guideway girder, based on the mode superposition method, are obtained by applying the UTM-01 control algorithm for electromagnetic suspension to make the maglev vehicle system stable. Finally, the numerical studies under various conditions are carried out to investigate the dynamic characteristics of the maglev system based on consideration of the linear and nonlinear electromagnetic forces. From numerical simulation, it is observed that the dynamic responses between nonlinear and linear analysis make little difference in the stable region. But unstable responses in nonlinear analysis under poor conditions can sometimes be obtained because the nominal air-gap is too small to control the maglev vehicle stably. However, it is demonstrated that this unstable phenomenon can be removed by making the nominal air-gap related to electromagnetic force larger. Consequently it is judged that the nonlinear analysis method considering the nonlinear equations of electromagnetic force and current can provide more realistic solutions than the linear analysis.