Lateral force and lateral connection stiffness of flux pinned docking interface

Another novel flux pinned docking interface consisting of an YBCO high temperature superconductor bulk and two electromagnets is designed in order to improve the connection stiffness of this docking interface and the detailed control strategy of the docking process is introduced. Using this novel docking interface, two spacecraft modules appear with a noncontacting connection status through intervehicle interaction, but with the characteristics of passive stability. The identical current loop model is proposed based on the Ampere current loop hypothesis to treat the magnetic field of the cylindrical permanent magnet that may be installed in the flux pinned docking interface, and the improved image dipole model is adopted with the intention of analyzing the flux pinned lateral force of the novel docking interface theoretically. Additionally, the experiment data of the flux pinned lateral force between a YBCO high temperature superconductor bulk and a cylindrical NdFeB permanent magnet is collected. The theoretical calculation and experimental data both show an initial decrease then increase with the increase of lateral displacement. Moreover, the theoretical analysis compared to the corresponding experimental data indicates that the improved image dipole model is an effective approach. Furthermore, the flux pinned lateral connection stiffness is obtained based on Hooke's law, showing that this stiffness initially decreases then increases as the lateral displacement that is larger than zero increases.