| Summary: | A new generation electric high-speed train called Aerotrain has levitation wings and levitates under Wing-in-Ground (WIG) effect along a U-shaped guideway. The previous study found that lacking knowledge of the design makes the prototype unable to regain stability when losing control. In this paper, the nonlinear three-dimensional dynamic model of the Aerotrain based on the rigid body model has been developed to investigate the relationship between the vehicle body design and its stability. Based on the dynamic model, this paper considered an Aerotrain with a horizontal tail and a vertical tail. To evaluate the stability, the location and area of these tails were parameterized. The effects of these parameters on the longitudinal and directional stability have been investigated to show that: the horizontal tail gives its best performance if the tail area is a function of the tail location; the larger vertical tail area and (or) the farther vertical tail location will give better directional stability. As for the lateral stability, a dihedral front levitation wing design was investigated. This design did not show its effectiveness, therefore a control system is needed. The obtained results are useful for the optimization studies on Aerotrain design as well as developing experimental prototypes.
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