Enhanced levitation force using YBa2Cu3Oy trapped field magnets

YBa2Cu3Oy HTS, field cooled in 2.3 T, are used in place of permanent magnet s (PM) as the source of field in magnetic levitation. They produce fields e qual to their maximum trapped field (B-t,B-max) up to 1.6 T in this work. S ince commonly used PM produce only similar to0.5 T, replacing them with suc h HTS trapped field magnets (TFM) significantly increases the magnetic fiel d and thus the levitation force (F-L) and pressure. The TFM is opposed by a second HTS which is (1) zero field cooled, (2) cool ed adjacent to the TFM, or (3) field cooled in 2.3 T. F-L increases by a fa ctor of 4-10 compared to common levitation systems with PM, up to 393 N (12 5 N/cm(2)). F-L(B-t,B-max) is normalized to a common curve for data sets wi th different TFM. The stability of the various configurations is determined by lateral force measurements.