Draft 1 Physics: Future Application of Magnetic Fields and Travel

The following is a draft for an English paper on the applications of magnetic fields and levitation in transportation:

Reynaldo Falcón

Professor Hugo Ríos-Cordero

INGL 3103

June 22th, 2021

Draft 1 Physics: Future Application of Magnetic Fields and Travel

Transportation has seen exponential increases in development as time flies. Human’s have managed to build bullet trains, electric cars, and even spaceships. It all comes down to the importance of transportation and the need to improve on its efficiency. As of late, many new and clever ways to improve travel times have begun to spring up with concepts of hyperloops and electricity-dependent modes of transport. But one of the most effective but costly ideas to date is the use of magnetic fields and magnetic levitation. In general, there are two big issues that hinder the speed and efficiency of any mode of transportation, friction and drag. Friction refers to the force that acts upon a car or train in the opposite direction of its movement caused by the contact it has with the ground. Drag is another force that acts similar to friction, but is caused by the contact the means of travel has with its direct surroundings, normally fluids like air and water. Maglev, or Magnetic levitation, is currently the most popular application of magnetic fields and has been seen used in trains across Japan and China, among others. It aims to solve one of the two biggest hindering factors in the potential for acceleration a mode of travel currently has, friction.

What would once sound like complete science fiction has now begun to revolutionize transportation starting with trains. The use of magnetic fields as a work around friction, and a means of propulsion, has been put to practice early into the 21st century: “The first commercially operated high-speed superconducting Maglev train opened in Shanghai in 2004, while others are in operation in Japan and South Korea.” (Whyte). But this is no recent idea, concepts of levitation and implementation of magnetic fields are seen as far back as Gulliver’s Travels in 1726, Samuel Earnshaw and his proof of limitation in magnetic levitation in 1842, and Emile Bachelet’s patent for an early maglev train back in 1912. (Yaghoubi). In simple words, the way the modern maglev trains work make use of magnets and their attractive and repulsive properties. These trains normally take advantage of two sets of magnets, each set contains magnets both on the train and on the train’s own track, to produce magnetic fields that in turn will produce a magnetic force. One set of these magnets are used to make the train “hover about 5 inches above the guideway” (Whyte) and stabilize it. The second of the two sets works on propulsion by changing the direction poles of the magnets found on the track so that the force produced when interacting with the magnetic field produced by the train’s magnets points forwards, allowing the train to accelerate and move towards its destination. This type of propulsion is very efficient at what it does especially when the train has already managed to overcome friction by literally levitating. So there would be no opposing force for the magnetic force accelerating the whole system.

Now it’s fair to mention that these supposed workarounds for these trains are not only costly, but they only manage to solve one of the two problems mentioned earlier. Yes, these are very costly in comparison to more primitive gas and coal trains, but they are incredibly clean as they only run on electricity to power the magnetic loops used in these trains. As long as the electricity comes from a clean and sustainable source, this too is a clean and sustainable practice. Add to that the fact that the lack of friction makes drag the only emitor of sounds, which reduces noise disturbances across any land these are used in. The technology to make this is still being looked into and worked on, so the problem of cost should begin to diminish as time goes on. Yaghoubi puts it best as he mentions one of the biggest reasons for a high cost per mile in maglev trains is due to the present superconducting systems. Now in these maglev systems, the use of superconductors and magnets instead of a full magnet setup is often used as they are more efficient and controllable. The only issue is the fact that these conductors need to be at a certain temperature, normally freezing, to actually perform their job effectively. Which entails a high maintenance cost in maglev systems. Now, with the idea of superconductors, “The hope is eventually to create better superconductors which do not need to be cooled to very low temperatures. Superconducting technology would then become widely applicable.” (Yaghoubi, 5). The transportation industry in general is beginning to put a lot of interest and investment in maglev technology. So this is to be expected sooner or later. And finally, in terms of drag, the original purpose of maglev transportation is to get rid of friction, which it has done so wonderfully. Now of course solving half a problem isn’t great but a step in the right direction for sure. But if technological advancements continue in the field of transportation, we can have this concept paired up with others like a hyperloop. A hyperloop would make use of low pressurised tracks to allow trains to travel with minimal drag. It also suffers from being costly but sees the same potential as maglev technology does too. Pairing these two would see humans create some of the world’s fastest commercial travel possible here on earth.

Bibliography:

Musk, Elon “Hyperloop Alpha”, Tesla, 12 August 2013 https://www.tesla.com/sites/default/files/blog_attachments/hyperloop_alpha3.pdf.

Whyte, Chelsea. “How Maglev Works.” Energy.gov, Department of Energy, 14 June 2016, www.energy.gov/articles/how-maglev-works.

Yaghoubi, Hamid.  "The Most Important Maglev Applications", Journal of Engineering, vol. 2013, Article ID 537986, 19 pages, 2013. https://doi.org/10.1155/2013/537986