Abstract

A levitation, propulsion and guidance mechanism for an inductive repulsion-type magnetically levitated railway in which a vehicle runs along a track bed has superconducting coils fixedly arranged vertically on both sides of the truck of the vehicle at predetermined intervals therealong in a direction of travel of the vehicle. Propulsion coils are arranged on opposed walls of the track bed at predetermined intervals therealong in the direction of travel of said vehicle, and a propulsion power supply is connected to the propulsion conductor coils. Levitation-guidance conductor coils, each comprising upper and lower conductor coils positioned to have vertical symmetry, are disposed on sides of the propulsion conductor coils facing the superconducting coils and are arranged at predetermined intervals along the direction of travel of the vehicle. The upper and lower coils of each of these levitation-guidance conductor coils are null-flux connected, and opposing ones of the these levitation-guidance conductor coils arranged on the opposed side walls of the track bed are null-flux connected. The upper and lower conductor coils of the levitation-guidance conductor coils are set in such a manner that mutual inductance between the superconducting coils on one side of the vehicle and the opposing levitation-guidance conductor coils on one side wall of the track bed and the mutual inductance between the superconducting coils on the other side of the vehicle and the opposing levitation-guidance conductor coils on the other side wall of the track bed cancel each other out when the vehicle is running on auxiliary wheels.