Case Study of High-Tc Superconducting Bulk Magnets for Maglev

Railway Applications for High-Tc Superconductors

“…It is well known that one of the most promising applications is a superconducting magnet for magnetically levitated (Maglev) trains. SCMs for Maglev trains applying high-Tc superconductors would be a prospective design in the future [16][17][18][19] , as are current leads to supply power to the superconducting magnet 20) . Recent achievements include the high-temperature superconducting coil using Bi wires in a persistent current mode 21) .…”

Fabrication and flux-trapping experiments of a 198 mm×99 mm bulkmagnet using YBCO superconductors

“…When the high-Tc superconductors are applied to the SCM, they can be cooled by liquid nitrogen and their stability will be improved. In using high-Tc superconductors for the SCM of the Maglev system, it is possible to use either a race-track superconducting coil made of high-Tc superconducting wires [4] or a bulkmagnet trapping magnetic flux within bulk superconductors [1], [2]. The bulkmagnet is a characteristic application of high-Tc superconductor.…”

“…The bulkmagnet must also generate a high magnetic field and have a large pole. Therefore, The bulkmagnet should be composed of several bulk superconductors arranged in rows and columns, because the size of the bulk superconductor is smaller than that of the poles of Manuscript the Maglev system when it is made of melt-processed YBaCuO and NdBaCuO with a high critical current density at 77 K and a high magnetic filed [1], [2]. In this study, we fabricate a 198 mm 99 mm bulkmagnet, which consists of YBaCuO bulk superconductors that are 33 mm 33 mm in size and 10 mm in thickness in six columns and three rows [8].…”

“…We have investigated the applicability of high-Tc superconducting bulkmagnet to the Maglev system [1], [2]. The SCM for the Maglev system needs to generate a high magnetic field that is higher than 1 T at the surface of the cryostat and have a large pole that is 1.07 m 0.5 m in size [5]- [7].…”

Technical issues of a high-Tcsuperconducting bulk magnet

“…The application of a superconducting bulk magnet or a superconducting quasi-permanent magnet to the Maglev train is considered in principle. We have investigated the possibility of superconducting bulk magnets for the Maglev system [8][9][10][11].…”