It's the newest and China's third commercial maglev train in operation. It was opened at the very end of , and it now joins Beijing's extensive subway network. The S1 rapid transit line has seven stops, runs on an 8. As of , these are the maglev trains you can go and take a ride in, and hopefully, many more will join the list. You can also read about the Abandoned Maglev projects here if you would like to know which ones did not make it the light at the end of the tunnel.
The Six Operational Maglev Lines in Sign in to post comment. Even though guideways cost less than rails over time Powell, , it is hard to justify spending so much upfront. Another problem is that maglev trains travel fast, but they might not travel quite fast enough. It is hard to dispute that these trains are superior to standard ones. Regardless, more work needs to be done before it is worth implementing them worldwide.
Ever since the steam engine, trains have traditionally been in the domain of mechanical engineers. They were all motors and axles, wheels and engines. However, the introduction of maglev technology has broken that tradition. Developing these trains has required input from a number of different fields other than mechanical engineering, including physics and chemistry.
Most importantly, though, it has brought electrical engineers to the table. From the beginning, electrical engineers have been major contributors to developing maglev technology. Eric Laithwaite, an electrical engineer, developed the first linear induction motor, an important and necessary precursor to maglev trains.
Hermann Kemper, who many believe to be the father of maglev, was also an electrical engineer. German and Japanese electrical engineers worked to establish the maglev programs in their respective nations. And today, electrical engineers are making the technology better and better so that it may appeal to countries all over the world. Maglev trains have surprisingly few moving parts. They are all about electric currents, magnets, and wire loops.
Some important topics to the field are electromagnetic fields and waves, circuit theory, feedback control systems, and power engineering. All these fall under the expertise of electrical engineers. Therefore it is electrical engineers that are needed to solve the biggest problems this technology faces. The trains need to be made faster and more energy efficient. All the while they need to be kept well within boundaries of safety. The guideways need to be made cheaper, easier to implement, and perhaps more compatible with existing rails.
The control systems need to be made flawless. All of these issues and more are calling out for an electrical engineer to come unravel their answers. Maglev technology holds great promise for the future. It has the potential to be a cheaper, faster, safer, and greener form of transportation than we have today.
And with the help of some electrical engineers, it will become all of these things. There are possible applications for this technology in anything from intercity public transportation to cross-country trips. There are even proposals to build long underground tubes, suck the air out of the tubes, and place maglev trains inside of them.
In this setting there would be virtually no wind resistance, so a train could easily reach speeds exceeding the speed of sound Thornton, While it may be a long time before this technology becomes prevalent, it is difficult to deny that it will at some point be prevalent.
The advantages are too hard to ignore. As of now there is only one commercial maglev train in use, and it has already eclipsed everything that has come before it. How will this technology evolve and improve as we move into the future? Only time will tell. But it is highly plausible that we now stand at the precipice of a transportation revolution. I, for one, look forward to gliding across the countryside at mph in a levitating box of magnets.
Abstract Maglev trains use magnetism to levitate above the tracks on which they travel. Introduction Imagine a train without wheels. History of Maglev The fundamental ideas behind maglev technology can be traced back to the early 20th century.
Figure 1 Transrapid on testing center in Germany near Bremen. Figure 3 Comparison of Wheel-Rail versus Guideways. Figure 4 Levitation, propulsion, and guidance in maglev. Levitation Levitation is the ability for the train to stay suspended above the track. There are two important types of levitation technology: Electromagnetic Suspension EMS : EMS Figure 5 uses the attractive force of electromagnets placed on the guideway and on the train to achieve levitation.
The benefits of this method are that it is simpler to implement than Electrodynamic Suspension discussed below , and that it maintains levitation at zero speed. The drawbacks are that the system is inherently unstable.
At high speeds, it becomes difficult to maintain the correct distance between train and guideway. If this distance cannot be kept, the train will fail to levitate and come grinding to a halt. To account for this, EMS requires complex feedback-control systems to ensure the train is always stable Lee, Electrodynamic Suspension EDS : EDS Figure 6 uses the repulsive force of superconducting magnets placed on the guideway and on the train to achieve levitation.
The magnets move past each other while the train is running and generate the repulsive force. The benefits of this method are that it is incredibly stable at high speeds.
Maintaining correct distance between train and guideway is not a concern Lee, The drawbacks are that sufficient speed needs to be built up in order for the train to levitate at all. Additionally, this system is much more complex and costly to implement. Propulsion Propulsion is the force that drives the train forward. Figure 7 Rotary motor versus linear motor. Guidance Guidance is what keeps the train centered over the guideway. Benefits of Maglev The most obvious attraction of maglev trains is that they can travel faster than traditional rail trains.
There are other, more subtle qualities that also make maglev attractive: Longevity: Conventional wheels and rails undergo a great deal of stress over time. They must be replaced and repaired periodically to remain functional. In maglev, there is no contact between train and guideway, so there is substantially less wear-and-tear. Skip to content Electromagnetism Magnetic materials Magnetic Products. Magnetic Products 0.
What does maglev train mean? When was the MRI invented and by whom? A short-bore system only scans the necessary part of the body, and allows the. In most cases, an MRI exam is safe for patients with metal implants, except. NMR spectroscopy was originally developed to help chemists who had created strange compounds that. Maglev trains are extremely environmentally friendly as they have zero carbon emissions, since they.
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