The electromagnetic levitation and guidance technology of the 'transrapid' test facility Emsland

A large scale test facility for the high speed ground transportation system TRANSRAPID has been built in Emsland. In the near future this test facility will show the economic feasibility of such a system. An essential component of this system is the magnetic levitation and guidance system of the vehicle. The requirements on this suspension system are: good ride comfort, high reliability and low operating costs. The elements of the suspension system are controlled cross field electromagnets with massive iron cores and rails for guidance and controlled longitudinal field magnets with a laminated iron core and rail for levitation. The reason for lamination is the combination of three operating tasks in the levitation magnets. These are: levitation, propulsion, and inductive power transfer to the vehicle. These magnets generate the exciting field of the synchronous linear motor. Due to these tasks the theoretical model for a levitation magnet has to be expanded in order to be able to describe these effects in dynamic simulations. The mechanical and the electrical structure of the suspension system must have several redundancies in order to get a high overall safety.