The effect of the modelling approaches in the assessment of comfort and curve negotiation performance of a small-scale maglev vehicle

In this article, a new co-simulation method was presented for high-temperature superconducting (HTS) magnetic levitation (Maglev) systems by utilizing H-formulation that is implemented in COMSOL Multiphysics (R). A comparative study was conducted to evaluate the curve negotiation performance, which is closely related to its stability, of the HTS maglev vehicle running on a multi-surface permanent magnet guideway (PMG). Also, Sperling's ride index method was used to evaluate ride comfort. Different from the existing related models of this subject, the dynamics of free-falling were incorporated into the modelling approach to simulate the actual running conditions of the vehicle. In addition, because of considering the non-stationary dynamics of the induced supercurrent in the HTS domain, the proposed approach and the selected route design provide simulation results that are close to the actual application of the HTS maglev vehicle. The results show that the performance indicators of the co-simulation greatly deviate from those of the existing curve-fitting-based models with increasing velocity.