Design and Optimization of an Active Magnetic Thrust Bearing for Flywheel Energy Storage Systems

This thesis is motivated in part by the lack of published research pertaining to active magnetic thrust bearings (AMTB), as compared to active magnetic radial bearings (AMRB). This thesis presents one method in implementing AMTBs to provide a near frictionless support to a rotor contained in a vacuum environment, mitigating the concerns of viscous drag and chemical reaction as a result of the exposure to lubricants. An analytical model was first developed to linearize the AMTB against a predefined operating point. A finite element simulation was subsequently conducted to verify the analytical model. The analytical and finite element methods both indicated that the steady state power consumption of the AMTB was approximately 12 W, and there was no occurrence of magnetic saturation within the material. The stress analysis showed that the stresses experienced by the rotor part of the AMTB as it rotated at the maximum rotation speed were well below the yield stress of the material. Lastly, a closed loop feedback network with proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controllers was designed and implemented as the control scheme for keeping the flywheel rotor at a predefined axial position, while the rotor underwent axial position variations due to the external disturbance, thermal expansion, or Poisson contraction effects. The resulting simulations showed that the PID controller was able to stabilize the flywheel rotor 0.3 s after it was disturbed by an external force equaling 10% of its weight