Fuzzy Bang-Bang Relay Control of a Rigid Rotor Supported by Active Magnetic Bearings

Active magnetic bearings, which are open-loop and unstable, require a feedback control system to ensure stable operation of the rotating machines that they support. Proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controllers are widely used in field applications of these bearings for this purpose. PID controllers are designed to work effectively within the linear region of operation of the rotating machines. Due to the inherent nonlinearity of the active magnetic bearings, large unbalance forces that may occur in these machines result in nonlinear vibration responses. Therefore, the PID controller’s effectiveness to control the vibration of the rotating machines is considerably reduced when the unbalance forces in these machines become large. Other control strategies, such as the fuzzy logic and the sliding mode control schemes, are more apt to deal with the nonlinear responses of the rotating machines supported by active magnetic bearings. The present work proposes an integrated fuzzy bang-bang relay controller for a rigid rotor mounted on active magnetic bearings. The effectiveness of this controller to suppress rotor vibrations is examined numerically. Performance comparison of this controller with the conventional fuzzy logic and PD controllers are made for different initial conditions, rotor imbalance magnitudes, and rotor angular speeds. At extreme operating conditions due to large rotor unbalance forces, where the magnetic bearings are highly nonlinear, the proposed integrated fuzzy bang-bang relay controller proved to be more superior over the conventional fuzzy logic and PD controllers