An Analytical Study on the Magnetic Levitation System Using a Halbach Magnet Array

Typically, three types of levitation technologies are applied to magnetic levitation systems: electromagnetic suspension, electrodynamic suspension, and hybrid electromagnetic suspension. A Halbach array is a special arrangement of permanent magnets which augments the magnetic field on one side of the device while cancelling the field to near zero on the other side. The application of this Halbach array magnet to the electrodynamic suspension has been recently studied in order to increase the levitation capability. This paper is focused on an analytical method of the magnetic levitation system using Halbach array magnet. The suitability of the proposed method is verified with comparing to the finite element method. In addition, dynamic stability of the magnetic levitation system is discussed. From this study, it is confirmed that the proposed method provides a reasonable solution with less computation time compared to the finite element method and the magnetic levitation system using Halbach array magnet is stable dynamically.