Modeling and Simulation of a High-speed Maglev Vehicle on an Infinite Elastic Guideway

Abstract

For magnetic levitation transport systems with pillared tracks, detailed simulation models of the coupled system of vehicle and guideway offer a valuable contribution to find a tradeoff between stiff/heavy guideway elements, required to keep disturbances small for the controller, and low material consumption. This work provides a novel model of a detailed rigid multibody Transrapid maglev vehicle with three sections moving along an infinite periodically pillared elastic guideway mapping the two-dimensional heave-pitch motion of the vehicle and the elastic bending of the guideway elements. The infinite guideway is realized by moving system boundaries, i.e., the same few Euler-Bernoulli beams representing the current track segment are used repeatedly to form an infinite sequence of guideway elements. The equations of motion of the elastic beams and the rigid multibody vehicle are obtained from the multibody modeling and simulation toolbox Neweul-M2. A detailed magnet model in combination with a model predictive control scheme are used for the first time in a large maglev vehicle model in this contribution. All model components are combined and coupled in a Simulink model. Simulation results show more severe overshoots and oscillations of the guideway deflection below the vehicle the faster the vehicle passes, which is resulting in bigger control errors and magnet motions at the rear end of the vehicle compared to the vehicle mid and front. Therefore, in contrast to previous presumptions, the most critical situations are to be expected at the rear end magnet, not at the front end.