Magnetic Levitation System / Yusuf Ab Karim and Khairul Ikhwan Md Arshad

The Magnetic Levitation System, called Maglev, is designed as an alternative to all conventional guided transportation systems. Advantages include major reductions in travel time, operating cost, capital cost, noise, and energy consumption. Van or small-bus size vehicles operating automatically with headways of only a few seconds can be operated in platoons to achieve capacities of more than 12,000 passengers per hour per direction. Small vehicles lead to lighter guide ways, shorter wait time for passengers, lower power requirements for wayside inverters, more effective regenerative braking and reduced station size. The result of the design is a system that can be built for about $20M per mile, including vehicles but excluding land acquisition.
The design objectives were achieved by taking advantage of existing technology including improved microprocessor-based power electronics, high-energy permanent magnets, precise position sensing, lightweight vehicles, a guide way matched to the vehicles and the ability to use sophisticated computer aided design tools for analysis, simulation and optimization. The vehicles have arrays of permanent magnets to provide suspension and guidance forces as well as provides the field for the Linear Synchronous Motor (LSM) propulsion system. Feedback-controlled currents in control coils wound around the magnets stabilize the suspension. The LSM windings are integrated with the suspension rails and excited by inverters located along the guide way.
This report focuses on urban applications with baseline vehicles designed to carry 24 passengers seated with room for 12 standees at times of peak load. The LSM is designed to provide speeds up to 45 m/s (lOlmph) and acceleration and braking up to 2 m/s2 (4.5 mph/s) without onboard propulsion equipment. Installation and operating cost are predicted to be lower than for any competing system and average travel times are reduced by more than a factor of 2. Environmental advantages include a factor of 2 reduction in energy consumption, smaller guide way cross-section with reduced visual impact, and greatly reduced noise. For some applications it is desirable to use smaller vehicles with lower top speeds or larger vehicles with higher top speeds. Both of these options are possible with the same guide way and suspension system. The only changes necessary are in the size of the power system used for propulsion. A 12 passenger vehicle with a top speed of 30 m/s (67 mph) is discussed in this report as an option when the application requires shorter trips with lower capacity and the reduced cost is an important advantage. An articulated vehicle with 36 seats is a possible option for speeds up to at least 60 m/s (134 mph).