Novel Automated Urban Maglev Transport System: A Validated Multibody Simulation

In the design phase of a completely new transportation system the knowledge of the dimensioning loads acting on the vehicle and the track is very important. For a new urban maglev people mover system called Transport System Bögl (TSB, developed by the company Max Bögl) no empirical values are available. To obtain design loads for this new system the loads are calculated using a multi body simulation. Simulation of maglev vehicles have a long history. However, the displacements between magnet and guideway are less important for quasistatic loads for instance at the suspension elements because the nominal value of the vertical gap between magnet and guideway amounts only 7 mm. Therefore, in the simulation, the levitation magnets are reduced to linear springs with a high stiffness and viscose damping. Measurements from a full-scale test track have been used to validate the model and its assumptions.