The first man-loading high temperature superconducting Maglev test vehicle in the world is reported. This vehicle
was first tested successfully on December 31, 2000 in the Applied Superconductivity Laboratory, Southwest Jiaotong
University, China. Heretofore over 17,000 passengers took the vehicle, and it operates very well from beginning to now.
The function of suspension is separated from one of propulsion. The high temperature superconducting Maglev
provides inherent stable forces both in the levitation and in the guidance direction. The vehicle is 3.5 m long, 1.2 m wide,
and 0.8 m high. When five people stand on vehicle and the total weight is 530 kg, the net levitation gap is more than 20
mm. The whole vehicle system includes three parts, vehicle body, guideway and controlling system. The high temperature
superconducting Maglev equipment on board is the most important for the system. The onboard superconductors
are melt-textured YBaCuO bulks. The superconductors are fixed on the bottom of liquid nitrogen vessels and
cooled by liquid nitrogen. The guideway consists of two parallel permanent magnetic tracks, whose surface concentrating
magnetic field is up to 1.2 T. The guideway is 15.5 m long.
2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved