The levitation characteristics of ferromagnetic materials by ring-shaped HTS bulks with two trapped field distributions

Stable levitation of cylindrical iron and permanent magnet (PM) samples of various sizes has been achieved by using high temperature superconducting (HTS) bulk annuli which were magnetized by field cooling (FC) method. In this paper, we examined the forces acting on iron and PM samples levitating in the inner space of HTS bulk annuli. The levitation forces of the 3 stacked HTS bulk system (3 bulks system) have been compared withthe 2 stacked HTS bulk system (2 bulks system) having a gap between the bulks. In our experiments, the levitation force increases with increasing the magnetization field strength, the strength of magnetic flux density of PM, and the sample size. The levitation force of the 2 bulks system was better than the 3 bulks system, and we found that the levitation force using the field in magnetized HTS bulk systems strongly depends on the strength of the magnetic flux density of the sample and the magnetic field gradient in the levitating space.