Magnetostatic analysis of a rotor system supported by radial active magnetic bearings

The development and the design of a radial active magnetic bearing (AMB) reflects a complex process of the multidisciplinary rotor dynamics, electromagnetism and automatic control analysis. Modelling is performed by application of the physical laws from different areas, e.g. Newton’s laws of motion and Maxwell’s equations. The new approach in the numerical modelling of radial AMBand design methodology allowing automatic generation of primary dimensions of the radial AMB is proposed. Instead of the common way of computation of electromagnetic forces by linearizing at the centre position of the rotor with respect to rotor displacement and coil current, the finite element computation of electromagnetic forces is used. The heteropolar radial AMB consisting of eight pole shoes was designed by means of the built up algorithms for rotor system with two discs fixed on the cantilever shaft. A study of the influence of the nonlinearmagnetization characteristics of a rotor and stator material on the equilibrium position of a rotor system is carried out. The performed numerical study shows that results obtained from the analytical nonlinear relation for electromagnetic forces can be considerably different from forces computed with magnetostatic finite element analysis