title: Field homogeneity improvement of maglev NdFeB magnetic rails from joints.
abstract: An ideal magnetic rail should provide a homogeneous magnetic field along the longitudinal direction to guarantee the reliable friction-free operation of high temperature superconducting (HTS) maglev vehicles. But in reality, magnetic field inhomogeneity may occur due to lots of reasons; the joint gap is the most direct one. Joint gaps inevitably exist between adjacent segments and influence the longitudinal magnetic field homogeneity above the rail since any magnetic rails are consisting of many permanent magnet segments. To improve the running performance of maglev systems, two new rail joints are proposed based on the normal rail joint, which are named as mitered rail joint and overlapped rail joint. It is found that the overlapped rail joint has a better effect to provide a competitive homogeneous magnetic field. And the further structure optimization has been done to ensure maglev vehicle operation as stable as possible when passing through those joint gaps. The results show that the overlapped rail joint with optimal parameters can significantly reduce the magnetic field inhomogeneity comparing with the other two rail joints. In addition, an appropriate gap was suggested when balancing the thermal expansion of magnets and homogenous magnetic field, which is considered valuable references for the future design of the magnetic rails.
authors.affiliation: Applied Superconductivity Laboratory, State Key Laboratory of Traction Power, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu, 610031 People's Republic of China ; School of Information Science and Technology, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu, 610031 People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Y J
authors.initials: YJ
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: School of Information Science and Technology, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu, 610031 People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Q
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Dai
authors.affiliation: School of Information Science and Technology, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu, 610031 People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: C Y
authors.initials: CY
authors.lastname: Deng
authors.affiliation: Applied Superconductivity Laboratory, State Key Laboratory of Traction Power, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu, 610031 People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: R X
authors.initials: RX
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.affiliation: Applied Superconductivity Laboratory, State Key Laboratory of Traction Power, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu, 610031 People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zheng
authors.affiliation: School of Mechanical Engineering, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu, 610031 People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Z
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: School of Mechanical Engineering, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu, 610031 People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.affiliation: School of Mechanical Engineering, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu, 610031 People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: School of Mechanical Engineering, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu, 610031 People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Z D
authors.initials: ZD
authors.lastname: Yuan
authors.affiliation: School of Electrical Engineering, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu, 610031 People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Fang
authors.affiliation: Applied Superconductivity Laboratory, State Key Laboratory of Traction Power, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu, 610031 People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Z G
authors.initials: ZG
authors.lastname: Deng
keywords: Field homogeneity; Joint; Maglev; Magnetic rail