Non-contact High Speed Braking System

Hello all,

I'm working with a project that requires a form of braking for a high velocity vehicle/train. However, the braking system I hope to utilize is one that:

1. Is non-contact
2. Feasible, Low Maintenance
3. Reliable in it's approach for a moving vehicle
4. Lightweight

My team has so far delved into eddy-current braking, but it seems as though our electromagnetic brakes utilized for such a vehicle are too heavy. The amount of electromagnets used is rather large in order to apply a large amount of braking force for the vehicle.

Please, any help/guidance/advice will be great!

Non contact? Eddy Current no go? Well, you're left with air braking...

If the train is electric you could explore dynamic braking resistor technology.

Modern high speed brakes use disk-friction brakes...

When you say air braking, does that entail redirecting the flow of air to be going against the vehicle. I forgot to mention that my vehicle is moving in a vacuum. I apologize for lacking in detail. The vehicle is to move in a spacelike atmosphere (vacuum). If this is the case, is it possible to produce a type of brake that can repel the moving vehicle?

I was wondering if ejecting a certain mass flow in the front of the vehicle would work?

Ejecting mass flow would work, but depending on the fuel source you will run out of brakes when you run out of mass to eject.

Depending on the energy requirements and weight / mass allowances your best bet is magnetic braking. You could place permanent magnets n the track and generate electricity with a lightweight coil placed over the magnets but you need somewhere to dump the electricity. Modern diesel trains use resistor beds to burn off dynamic braking energy. There has been research into using the generated energy to spin up a flywheel that you can tap to recover the energy.

Some more information about your set-up would help figure out a solution.

Drew K

[COLOR=#333333]"The vehicle is to move in a spacelike atmosphere (vacuum)."[/COLOR] sounds like this may be a hyperhoop type vehicle project

Actually while we applying brakes the energy is transforming into heat due to friction when brakes applied.I think in your sense that non contact means without friction.By using torsional spring to absorb that energy and reuse and i also want say that stoping vehicle means decreasing momentum by different means by using friction brakes,but we are seeing regenerative brakes absorbs energy and stores in another form for further use