Investigation of the thermal effect of a tubular permanent magnet actuator with a water cooling channel for active lateral suspension of a high-speed train

Abstract

Worldwide, high-speed rail is becoming an increasingly popular and efficient means of transport. However, increasing the speed of a train leads to major reductions in stability and ride comfort. Here, we develop a tubular permanent magnet actuator to overcome these problems. To increase actuator thrust, the electromagnetic circuit requires a high current and, thus, becomes hot. We use a water cooling system with 12 straight copper channels to reduce the temperature. We calculate heat transfer coefficients using empirical convection correlations between laminar flow in the channels and experimental results. The predicted, tube surface temperatures correlated well with the experimental data. We evaluated the effects of flow rate and initial water temperature on various design parameters. The cooling system allowed application of a current greater than 100 A, developing a thrust force of over 8000 N. Thus, the system was robust under harsh operating conditions. We measured the thrust and cogging forces and the performance of the water cooling system in terms of the maximum acceptable temperature. The thrust was high and the cogging torque was low, greatly reducing lateral vibration; the temperature remained below the acceptable maximum.