Abstract
The role of transport in sustainable development was first recognized at the 1992 United Nations (UN) Earth Summit and reinforced in its outcome document—Agenda 21. It is also part of objective 11 of UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The improvements in the traditional methods of transportation lag behind the necessities. This paper shows that Magnetic Levitation (MagLev) can fulfill the demand and fits with smart grid concepts. Moreover, the levitation method based on the diamagnetic property of high-temperature superconductors in the proximity of rare-earth permanent magnets presents advantages in comparison with other levitation methods. This technological solution was tested with the operation of a real scale prototype inside the campus of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), operating since 2014. The paper presents a historical and technological overview of the steps necessary to turn this prototype into a commercial product. The development is framed within NASA’s Technological Readiness Levels (TRL). A new transportation paradigm is on the verge of becoming a reality.
Highlights
Nowadays, 50% of the world population lives in cities
In the case of type II superconductors, this exclusion is partial, which reduces the levitation force but leads to the stability of the levitation due to the so-called “pinning” effect [5]. This property, which represents the great differential in relation to the Electrodynamic Levitation (EDL) and Electromagnetic Levitation (EML) methods, could only be properly explored from the end of the 20th century with the advent of new magnetic materials, such as Nd2 Fe14 B (NdFeB), and high critical temperature superconducting (HTS) ceramics, such as
The technology applied in the MagLev2 -Cobra urban transportation system proves to be simpler and lighter than the EML technology used in commercially available urban Magnetic Levitation (MagLev) trains
Summary
50% of the world population lives in cities. In many countries, like Brazil, this percentage is greater than 80%. The system, if properly adjusted, can be passively stabilized laterally, but requires support wheels at low speeds (Figure 1b) This method makes use of the diamagnetic property that excludes external magnetic fields from inside a superconductor. In the case of type II superconductors, this exclusion is partial, which reduces the levitation force but leads to the stability of the levitation due to the so-called “pinning” effect [5] This property, which represents the great differential in relation to the EDL and EML methods, could only be properly explored from the end of the 20th century with the advent of new magnetic materials, such as Nd2 Fe14 B (NdFeB), and high critical temperature superconducting (HTS) ceramics, such as YBa2 Cu3 OX (YBCO). Magnetic Levitation, regardless of the technique employed, is compared with the traditional wheel-rail technology for transportation, as shown in Figure 2, in which construction aspects (first two lines) and operational aspects (last three lines) are separated
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