Nonlinear motion characteristics of the high-temperature superconducting levitation system with boundary crack

High-temperature superconducting levitation systems have nonlinear behaviors, such as the period-doubling bifurcation and chaotic vibration under external excitation, in connection with the nonlinear hysteresis interaction between the high-temperature superconductors (HTSC) and permanent magnet. The HTSC is a non-ideal type II superconductor in which the fracture is generated internally during manufacturing, and the material properties are brittle. The HTSC tends to crack under a strong magnetic field and electromagnetic force, and its internal defects are likely to cause structural damage with the variable Lorentz force. The fracture performance of the superconducting magnetic levitation system will affect the temperature variation of HTSC, in which the temperature is coupled with the internal electromagnetic force. In this paper, we analyze the fracture characteristics of the HTSC in nonlinear vibration with thermal effect. A superconducting magnetic levitation system model with boundary cracks is applied to study the coupling of multiple physical fields in dynamic processes. The Maxwell equation and superconducting electromagnetic constitutive equation are used to obtain the superconductor’s current density, and the temperature is calculated through the heat conduction equation. The superconducting magnetic flux flow and creep model is applied to analyze the magnetic flux motion inside the superconductors. We compare the superconducting levitation system’s electromagnetic force, temperature, and current density with four critical current densities. The numerical results show that the critical current density of superconductors significantly impacts bifurcation motion, and the temperature of the crack tip of the superconductors varies greatly during vibration, causing the superconductor to lose its superconductivity.