Simulation of maglev vehicles riding over single and double span guideways

A magnetically levitated high speed vehicle on an elevated periodically supported guideway is approximated by a single-mass vehicle on a flexible single and double span beam with rigid piers. To describe the distributed parameter system of the flexible guideway, modal analysis technique is used. Because of the coupling of the moving vehicle and the guideway the system is characterized by an ordinary vector differential equation with periodically time varying coefficients and jumping states at the piers. To compensate the static instability the suspension magnets are actively controlled by a suboptimal time invariant control system. For the single span guideway an analog simulation is shown, whereas for the double span guideway a digital simulation is presented. Examples are given comparing the solutions for dynamic displacements of the system when a direct state feedback controller is used an when the vehicle is modelled as a moving mass or a moving force.