Jun Zheng, Zi-Gang Deng, Jia-Su Wang, and Su-Yu Wang
8 New progress of HTS Maglev vehicle
8.1 Introduction
Since there is no mechanical contact, Maglev trains can easily move faster, more
smoothly, and quietly than any conventional wheeled rail transport system. Up to
now, the superconducting Maglev is still the holder of the world speed record for the
whole rail transit, which is 581 km/h by the Japanese experimental low-temperature
superconducting (LTS) Maglev vehicle, MLX-01, in 2003 [1]. On May 27, 2011, the
Japanese government announced that the Chou Shinkansen Maglev [2], the fruit of
half a century of tireless research, was granted 9 trillion JPY to start constructing
a first real commercial superconducting Maglev line in the world. The most drama-
tic technology innovation is the remarkable designed running speed of 505 km/h.
This event became a significant landmark in the field of superconducting Maglev
technology, which stated that “the prospects of the establishment of technology
for commercial operation as an ultra high-speed mass transportation system have
become clear”. Regarding the newly born high-temperature superconducting (HTS)
Maglev using high-temperature superconductor (HTSC) bulks, which is also referred
to as a flux-trapping type HTS Maglev, it is predicted that it will be ready to use in
2020 by 35% of the respondents of the survey of Bento Strategy’s Superconductor ̄
Market Research in 2010 [3], although the R&D history of HTS Maglev vehicle is only
16 years old.
Due to the inherent flux-pinning characteristics, HTSC bulks can realize passive
stable levitation equilibrium in an applied magnetic field without any control. It is
amazing that this large-scale passive levitation exists or is elastic over a continuous
range of stable equilibrium positions or orientations to allow a HTS bulk to levitate
or suspend motionless [4]. From the viewpoint of technology application, it promises
simple levitation and guidance implementations as well as a light vehicle body. These
prominent advantages based on this levitation principle bring wide potential for
application, including the Maglev vehicle, in the field of rail transit. Scientists and
engineers have focused on the first-stage research on the feasibility of HTS Maglev
vehicles since the late 1990s. On December 31, 2000, the first manned HTS Maglev
test vehicle “Century” was tested successfully carrying up to five people at a net
levitation gap larger than 20 mm above the 15.5-m-long double permanent magnetic
guideway (PMG) in China [5]. (see Chapter 6). Afterward, two other manned HTS
Maglev demonstration vehicles were developed in Germany [6, 7] and Russia [8].
A small-scaled vehicle model in Japan experimentally reached a 42-km/h running
speed over a circular test PMG [9]. More experimental HTS Maglev vehicles were
launched from different research and application views, including a traffic exhibition
model, a new PMG for better Maglev performance, a high-speed launch model [10–15].