Date of Award

Fall 2009

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering

Program/Concentration

Aerospace Engineering

Committee Director

Keejoo Lee

Committee Member

Colin Britcher

Committee Member

Thomas Alberts

Call Number for Print

Special Collections; LD4331.E535 V45 2009

Abstract

A flexible guideway on an elevated foundation is a key to affordable maglev urban transit. The flexible guideway can undergo significant dynamic motion, either when a vehicle solely relies on an open-loop control system or when a vehicle equipped with feedback control system experiences failure, due to fluctuating magnetic forces between the vehicle and the guideway. In an attempt to understand the effect of the uncontrolled vehicle on the structural response of the guideway, its dynamic interaction with maglev vehicles is investigated under various operating conditions. To this end, two vehicle models using Electrodynamic suspension (EDS) and Electromagnetic suspension (EMS) maglev technologies, each equipped with two magnets and a guideway structural model over multiple spans are developed. These models are used to determine the fluctuating air gap between vehicle and guideway. The effect of the vehicle mass on the air gap change is examined for a given guideway design at various operating speeds. Subsequently, the effect of the guideway span length on the air gap change is estimated for various vehicle sizes. Numerical results indicate that the dynamic interaction of the guideway with uncontrolled vehicles become more significant as the vehicle size increases. Though believed negligible, the interactions at low speed such as 5 m/s can be significant for heavy vehicles. A separate study is carried out to examine the behavior of different uncontrolled vehicles on multiple span guideways. It is found that the EDS system vehicles are inherently stable on stiff guideways only. They may fail or crash on to the guideway while traveling on a flexible guideways irrespective of the vehicle speed. Whereas for an Electromagnetic (EMS) maglev system, irrespective of the vehicle size and speed, the vehicle crashes on to the guideway almost immediately after the control system malfunctions.

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DOI

10.25777/90n8-gw19

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