Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 May 2011
This study investigates the steady state dynamic interactions between a vehicle and guideway of a high-speed ground transportation system based on magnetically levitated (Maglev) vehicles. The guideway is assumed to be made up of identical simply supported beams with single spans and rigid supports. The vehicle is considered two-dimensional, with numerous degrees of freedom representing the passenger cabin and primary and secondary suspensions of the vehicle with lumped masses, linear springs and dampings. The Bernoulli-Euler beam equation is utilized to model the characteristics of a flexible guideway, and the guideway synthesis is based on a modal analysis method. The dynamic behaviors of both vehicle and guideway are then simulated to investigate how the locations of the passenger cabin mass of center and asymmetric suspension characteristics of the vehicle suspensions influence high speed vehicle-guideway interaction. Finally, simulation results are compared. Results of this study provide basic design guidelines for Maglev vehicle-guideway systems.