Magnetic river

Magnetic river is an electrodynamic

magnetic levitation (maglev) system
designed by Fredrick Eastham and Eric
Laithwaite in 1974. It consists of a thin
conductive plate on an AC linear
induction motor. Due to the transverse
flux and the geometry, this gives it lift,
stability and propulsion as well as being
relatively efficient. The name refers to the
action that provides stability along the
longitudinal axis, which acts similar to
the flow of water in a river.
Linear motors

The US DoT's LIMTV is typical of the "sandwich

motor" designs.

A linear induction motor (LIM) is

essentially a conventional induction
motor with its primary "unwound" and
laid out flat. The rotor, normally
consisting of a series of conductors
wound onto a form of some sort, is
replaced by a sheet of magnetically
susceptible metal. Due to its good
conductance to weight ratio, aluminium
is almost always used for this "stator
plate". When the primaries are fed
current, they induce a magnetic field in
the stator plate, which generates forces
away from the plate and along it.[1]

The simplest way to use these forces to

produce linear motion is to arrange two
such motors on either side of a single
stator plate. That way the lift forces from
one motor are opposite of the other, and
clamping the two motors together results
in there being no net sideways force (it is
contained in the stress of the clamp).
This is normally arranged in a C-shaped
device which is hung above a vertical
stator plate. Arrangements of this sort
can be commonly seen on many
pioneering transit systems from the
1960s, normally running through a slot in
the middle of the vehicle floor.[1]

By the late 1960s, a fatal flaw in this

"sandwich motor" arrangement had been
discovered. The stator plate cannot be
made of a single casting, as it is
kilometres long. Instead, it is made of
many smaller plates that are then welded
together. The strength of these welds is
much smaller than the plate itself, and
are prone to breaking in cold weather.
When the vehicle passes, any
misalignment between the motor and the
stator results in enormous forces being
generated, pushing the plate back into
the center of the motor. These forces
may be great enough to break the welds
between the plates, or simply deform
them. In this case, a motor on a following
vehicle can strike the plate,
catastrophically.[2]

Single-sided LIM
Looking to address the problems found
in the sandwich motor, starting in 1967
Eric Laithwaite and his team at Imperial
College London began experimenting
with single-sided LIM arrangements. In
this arrangement there is no
corresponding set of magnetic fields on
the "far side" of the stator, which requires
some other system to be used to create
a complete flux path.[3]

The team initially considered small

plates of soft iron, like those in a
transformer core. The size of the flux
arrangement, and thus the size of the
iron plates required, was a function of
vehicle speed, power frequency and the
size of the magnets. The size of the
magnets is a function of the power
dissipation within them, and are
therefore a fixed size for any given type
of vehicle; larger magnets are needed for
higher power levels, which are used on
higher-speed vehicles. Thus the only real
variable is the frequency of the power
supply. At the time, efficient high-power
frequency conversion was expensive and
heavy, so using standard 50 Hz mains
power was the only practical system.
Considering these inputs, a single-sided
LIM demanded flux "core" about 30 cm
deep, which would add enormously to the
cost of the tracks.[4]

Magnetic River
In February 1969, Laithwaite's team
made a breakthrough that improved the
practicality of the single-sided LIM for
high-speed use. They noticed that by
turning the vehicle-mounted rotor side of
the motor through 90 degrees, so it was
aligned "across" the tracks instead of
along them, the flux was able to spread
through the entire stator plate, thereby
eliminating the problems with depth.
Once again, a simple thin aluminum
sheet would serve as an appropriate
stator plate. As Laithwaite later noted,
there was no reason not to consider this
design from the start, it had simply not
come up during the development of the
LIM from rotary electric motors, which
had their primaries aligned "along" the
stator in the same fashion as earlier
LIMs.[5] These new arrangements were
known as Traverse Flux Machines, or
TFMs.[4]

During the development of the TFM,

maglev vehicles were a major area of
research, especially in Germany.
Laithwaite had always been interested in
these designs, and invested some effort
developing his own versions. Most
maglev systems used a series of
magnets to provide lift, and separate sets
to provide guidance side-to-side along
the rail. All of these designs had
considerable problems with stability, and
required electronic systems to maintain
the ride. Laithwaite was highly critical of
any design that used attractive forces for
lift, and felt a repulsive system, which is
naturally stable, would be a better design.

Laithwaite developed a repulsive-based

maglev using two long conductors set on
either side of a flux plate. The conductors
ran down the top of the plate off the end,
were bent through 180 degrees, and then
ran back along the top of the plate,
forming a long U-shape. Running current
through the loops of wire caused
magnetic fields that were repulsive over
the loops, and attractive in the area
between them. This meant that if the
motor became uncentered compared to
the stator plate, it would naturally feel a
force pulling it back to the center. The
only downside of this approach is that
the vehicle in proper alignment feels both
attractive and repulsive forces, meaning
that greater energy is needed to provide
the required amount of lift. The system
did not provide thrust, only lift, so the
team proposed to place a thin LIM
between the two lift coils.[6]

Tom Fellows of the Tracked Hovercraft

team approached Laithwaite to build a
model of a maglev system for the
upcoming Transpo '72 trade show. Using
the repulsive design he found that the
model required a very wide motor, about
25 cm for a track that was to be only 9 m
long, so Laithwaite began examining
ways to reduce the system size. One
early change was to move the
conductors from lying on the top of the
motor to having one half of the loop
under the flux plate. This was found to
cause the system to become unstable,
until someone accidentally hooked up
the lift conductors the "wrong way" so
the current flowed in the same direction
in the two loops. This immediately
caused the system to stabilize.[6]

When Laithwaite hired an engineering

firm to build the model, they noted that a
9 m long stack of iron plates would be
highly unlikely to survive the journey to
the US intact. Considering the problem,
Fredrick Eastham considered breaking
the track down into multiple sections,
each with its own lift loops. This led to a
design using a series of U-shaped iron
cores with looped wire creating a flux in
them, similar to ½ of a transformer core.
When this arrangement was tried out, it
was found that it provided lift from both
arms of the U, eliminating the need for
two rows of lift coils. Finally, by
connecting the U's to a 3-phase power
supply, thrust was created. This was the
magnetic river.[6]

Description
FEMM simulation of a Cross-section of Magnetic
River, coloured by electric current density

In magnetic river the conductive plate is

a critical width relative to the magnets
underneath it.

The row of magnets for the linear motor

each have two poles, with the poles
arranged transverse to the 'river' with U-
shaped cores, and excited with an AC
current.

When energised the magnets produce an

oscillating transverse field which cuts the
plate. The plate then generates two eddy
currents, one above each pole.

However, the edge reduces the size of

the eddy current on each side, since it
interferes with the circular current.
Moving the plate sideways increases the
current on one side, since the edge is
interfering less, and this pushes that side
higher. The plate is also pulled laterally
back towards the centre by the currents,
stabilising the lateral motion.

This stabilisation only works provided

that the plate is not too wide or too
narrow, and is also somewhat dependent
on levitation height, the plate must be
wider at higher lifts.
References
1. Laithwaite 1973, p. 802.
2. Laithwaite 1973, pp. 802-803.
3. Laithwaite 1973, p. 803.
4. Laithwaite 1973, p. 804.
5. Laithwaite 1973, p. 805.
6. Curtis 1973, p. 805.
Laithwaite, Eric (28 June 1973), "Linear
motors for high-speed vehicles" , New
Scientist, pp. 802–805
Curtis, Anthony (28 June 1973),
"Magnetic river mixes lift and thrust" ,
New Scientist, p. 805

External links
 Imperial college video of magnetic
river in action
Obituary of Professor Eric Laithwaite

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