Research on Braking Characteristics of Rail Eddy Current Brake with AC Excitation

This paper describes an eddy current brake (ECB) device consisting of AC excitation and ferromagnetic railway. The braking force can be generated with non-contact and low noise caused by the reaction between the eddy current and excitation current. In this paper, the structure of the brake is introduced detailedly. In addition, the three-dimensional finite element analysis (FEA) model of ECB is established. Meanwhile, the experiment system of the rail ECB is built to study the braking characteristics. The validity of FEA simulation is verified by experimental results. It is found that with the increase of speed, the braking force increases linearly to a maximum value first, then slowly decreases, while the normal attractive force decreases continuously. The braking characteristic matches the requirements for the high-speed running trains which need large braking force and low normal force in the deceleration process, so it can be used as an auxiliary braking method in the high-speed railway.