Compound effect of adjacent HTS bulks’ anisotropy and inhomogeneity on maglev performances in an applied magnetic field

The c-axis direction of onboard high-temperature superconducting (HTS) bulks parallel or perpendicular to the applied magnetic field can improve levitation and guidance forces, respectively. Therefore, a new vertical laying mode for bulks was proposed to be executed above the permanent magnet guideway (PMG). Considering that the seed-face part of an HTS bulk performs better on flux trapping, the seed-face orientation of vertical HTS bulks was investigated in this study. In addition, this study focused on the relationship between maglev performance of single and double yttrium barium copper oxide (YBCO) bulks in vertical arrangements above a Halbach PMG. It was found that the effect of the seed-face orientation on the levitation force was smaller than that on the guidance force. Moreover, the results provide evidence of the interaction between adjacent bulks in vertical arrangements by showing that the maglev performance of two bulks does not simply equal the sum of levitation or guidance forces of the two bulks. The compound effect is attributed to the orientation of the seed face caused by the bulk inhomogeneity and the interaction caused by bulk anisotropy. This is of particular concern when designing new HTS bulk arrays and vertical arrangements for maglev applications. [Display omitted]