rd

3 International Conference of Engineering Against Failure (ICEAF III)

26-28 June 2013, Kos, Greece

A Control Model of Active Magnetic Bearings

Michael G. Farmakopoulos1, Michalis D. Thanou2, Pantelis G. Nikolakopoulos1,

Chris A. Papadopoulos1,*, Anthony P. Tzes2

Machine Design Laboratory1

Department of Mechanical Engineering and Aeronautics
University of Patras, Patras-26504, Greece

Automation and Robotics Laboratory2

Electrical & Computer Engineering Department
University of Patras, Patras-26504, Greece

ABSTRACT

Active magnetic bearings (AMBs) support a rotating shaft, inside a stator, contactless. Their major
benefit in respect to hydrodynamic journal bearings is the possibility of operating in much higher
rotational speeds (above 20.000 RPM). This is due to the fact that, their angular velocity is only
limited by the strength of the shaft material and always they have stabilized operation without any
mechanic contact. Also, AMBs are resulting in long life time, without the use of any lubrication
system, eliminating thus the complexity of the lubricant network and promoting green operation of the
rotating machines. Furthermore, the electromagnetic bearings are active elements that allow the
measurement and the control of the position of the shaft, targeting in most accurate equilibrium
positions, in terms of the shaft operation. Therefore, a suitable control system is required for a
magnetic bearing, to exploit the above advantageous operational characteristics.
In this study, the model of the control system of a Magnetic Bearing in terms of sensors and power
amplifiers is presented and its design guidelines are explicitly described. As a first step, the non linear
equation of the movement of the shaft inside the magnetic bearing, in one direction (y-axis), is
introduced. Then, the linearization of this particular equation in a specific equilibrium point is
performed and presented. Consequentially, the linear equation is transformed via Laplace method and
the model of the Active Magnetic Bearing is finally developed. In addition to these, the sensor and the
power amplifiers are modeled, to simulate the AMB system as a whole.
The Matlab software is used to simulate the components that the AMB is consisted of. The P, I and
D gains are the result of this simulations, which are produced via robust control method, in Single-
Input-Single-Output (SISO) tool module of Matlab.
At the end, the Simulink module of Matlab is energized to check the control characteristics of the
developed AMB system, taking into account the non-linear equations of the electromagnetic forces
and the saturation of the coils. The rotor response, the overshoot, the rotor centre vibration are
controlled using the above produced P, I and D gains. Several plots are constructed and presented to
show the AMB control possibility with the aforementioned methodology.

Keywords: Active Magnetic Bearings, AMB, PID, control, rotor

Nomenclature:
A : Cross-section area of each electromagnetic pole
d : Rotors diameter
dub : Displacement of unbalance
F1, F2 : Magnetic forces
g : Bearing magnetic air gap
Ib : Bias current
Ic : Control current
*
Corresponding author
 M.G. Farmakopoulos, M.D. Thanou, P.G. Nikolakopoulos, C.A. Papadopoulos, A.P. Tzes

Id : Transverce moment of inertia

Ip : Polar moment of inertia
Kyi : Current stiffness coefficient
Kyy : Position stiffness coefficient
L : Rotors length
Mx, My : Torque in X, Y direction
m : Rotors mass
mub : Unbalance mass
Nw : Number of windings per pole
r : Rotors radius
y : Displacement in Y-direction
: Magnetic permeability of vacuum (410-7 N/A2)
: Rotational speed

1. Introduction
Vibration control in rotating machines is linked to a critical speed, to an excitation at rotation
harmonics or to rotordynamic instability. Usually, heavy rotors are operated below the critical speed,
in sub-critical conditions. Light high-speed rotors can be run in super-critical conditions. However,
exceptions exist; for example, heavy turbogenerators in power plants work in super-critical conditions.
As it is known, excitation at rotation harmonics might also cause a problem. Nowadays, the most
common active vibration control solution used in rotating machines is the use of active magnetic
bearings (AMB) [1, 2]. A rotor is levitated in an air gap by actively controlled magnetic forces.
Levitating a rotor provides advantages such as low friction and almost maintenance-free operation.
The design of such control is a challenging task since it must compensate for the instability inherent to
the magnetic bearing and at the same time avoid destabilization of any flexible modes the rotor may
exhibit, especially at high speeds. PID control method was already used at the early days of AMB [3-
5]. It requires a small computing power and provides good robustness and stability, if the operating
point is inside of linear performance range of the AMB. PID control procedure associated with design
of decentralized controllers is able to control AMB systems with collocation of force direction and
sensed direction of rotor movement at the position sensors location, and gives stability for discrete
time control. Also, from the analysis of the literature, sources that describe the various methods of
controlling the magnetic levitation of the rotating rotor by (the class of linear regulators, optimal
regulators, regulators with a robust law of control [6-7]), one can conclude that the standard PID
regulators are quite relevant for designing systems of control for the magnetic levitation.
In this study, the model of the control system of a magnetic bearing in terms of sensors and power
amplifiers is presented and its design guidelines are explicitly described. As a first step, the non linear
equation of the movement of the shaft inside the magnetic bearing, in bilateral directions (x and y-
axis), is introduced. Then, the linearization of this particular equation in a specific equilibrium point is
performed and presented along with the appropriate PID gains. Consequently, the linear equation is
transformed via Laplace method and the model of the Active Magnetic Bearing is finally developed.
The control design is finally based on a simplified linearized model for the two axes using a root
locus. It has been shown, that the presented PI/PD control guarantees satisfactory high damping and
stiffness of the overall system.

2. The rotor-bearing (AMB) system

In Fig. 1(a) the rotor-bearing system used is depicted with the AMB Fig. 1(b). Our rotor and active
magnetic bearing is constructed to be used with RK4-Rotor Kit of the former Bently Nevada. The left
bearing is considered as a joint with zero x and y translation, whereas the right bearing is the AMB.
The dimensions of the rotor are shown in Fig. 2. In Fig. 3 the xyz the stationary and rotating
coordinate system are shown. The left end of the shaft is considered to be fixed to the origin while the
right end accepts the AMB forces. Let Ii and Ik the inertias around i and k axes. Then Ii = Ij due to the
symmetry. Then the Newton Law of the moments acting on the shaft including the gyroscopic effect
can be written as:
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3 International Conference of Engineering Against Failure (ICEAF III)
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(a) (b)
Figure 1: (a) The RK4 Rotor Kit of GE (former Bently-Nevada) with (b) the AMB on the right,
constructed by the design team of the Machine Design Lab.

Figure 2: The dimensions of the rotor used

I dx I py N x
(1)
I dy I px N y j y xyz Stationary coordinate system
Rotating coordinate system
It should be noticed that the gyroscopic terms are i

effective at high rotational speeds or in cases of high x

inertias about the axis of rotation. From Fig. 3 it can be
observed that:
x L sin y L y
(2)
y L sin x L x k

Eliminating x and y from the differential equations z
View-2
above the following equations are obtained: View-1
I p L
y
x N x
Id Id y z
(3) x y

I p L
x
y N y L
Id Id k
View-1
N y
Then if the external moments are taken into
consideration the following final equations are obtained x N x

[9]:
I p mgh k x L2 L2 L k
y
x Fy e 2 cos t
Id Id Id y View-2
(4)
I p
x

mgh k x L L 2 2 z
x y Fx e 2 sin t
x

Id Id Id y

where m = 1kg is the mass of the axis corresponding to Figure 3: Coordinate systems and gyroscopic
2
the AMB, g = 9.81 m/s , h is the distance of the origin effect
to the center of gravity of the mass corresponding to the
AMB, that is equal to L, Fx and Fy are the magnetic
forces acting on the shaft from the AMB whereas me2 is the amplitude of the eccentricity force.
 M.G. Farmakopoulos, M.D. Thanou, P.G. Nikolakopoulos, C.A. Papadopoulos, A.P. Tzes

Two cases are examined and briefly analyzed in this paper: a) the case that the unbalanced forces
are acted on the rotor, named as case 1 and b) the case where the unbalanced forces and the gyroscopic
terms are present simultaneously, named as case 2.
The integration of a feedback control in AMB systems shown in Fig. 2 must carefully consider the
dynamics of the rotor. This is due to the fact that a rotor, supported by magnetic bearings is an open-
loop unstable system so an accurate model of the system is always needed for stabilization.
To get an effective electromagnetic levitation that is competitive to the traditional systems, it is
necessary to create a mathematical model of the force part of the dynamics of electromagnetic
levitation system, which permits synthetic actions of the control system and the laws of its functional
behavior.

3. The AMB control system

A scheme for a radial magnetic bearing for one axis, i.e. the Y-axis, is shown in Fig. 4. A
simplified linearized model expressing the magnetic force in one direction is described by eq. (5),
where Ic(t) denotes the control current, y(t) is the rotor position and m is the effective the rotor mass.
The current stiffness kyi and the position stiffness kyy, known as linearization parameters of the bearing
force (Fig. 1), are determined by the numeric computation. As for the controller, the equation of
movement of the rotor, as it is shown in the following figure, neglecting the iron saturation of the
stator and the rotor and neglecting other external forces, is [5]:
Displacement sensor
Nw

Power Amplifier
Ib+Ic
A
Reference F1 y
Controller Rotor
Signal F2 mg
g
Ib-Ic
Power Amplifier

Figure 4: A Single degree of freedom magnetic bearing control system

Figure 5: An AMB block diagram

In eq. (4) the forces Fx and Fy are the AMB forces depending on the current. Both forces can be
calculated by the following expression:
I I 2 I I 2
Fb 0 NW2 A b c b c (5)
g y g y
For the system of Fig. 4, the number of coils NW and the area A of the eq. (5) referred in one pole
of each horseshoe shaped electromagnet.
By linearizing the eq. (5) in the center of the bearing (y=0 and Ic=0) and by setting the control
current equal to zero (Ic=0), ignoring other external forces, the linearized equation is:
my(t ) k yy y (t ) k yi I c (t ) mg Fd FG (6)
where the position stiffness coefficient is define as,
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3 International Conference of Engineering Against Failure (ICEAF III)
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4 0 NW2 AI b2
k yy (7)
g3
and the current stiffness coefficient is define as,
4 0 NW2 AI 2b
k yi (8)
g2
As a first approximation, and for simplicity we can assume that the sensor run out E=0 and the
unbalance force Fd=0 as well as the gyroscopic force FG=0. Proper choice of Ic can be done in order to
eliminate the gravity term, while the position and the current stiffness coefficients get the appropriate
values.
k yi
Ic 2 y (9)
ms k yy

Neglecting unbalance and gyroscopic forces, equation (6) can be transformed in the Laplace
domain, giving the transfer function of the plant (7):

Y (s) k yi
2 (10)
I c ( s ) ms k yy
k yy
The poles of the transfer function describe an unstable system are S1,2 and the AMB plant
m
is an unstable system. The simplest way to stabilize the plant is to close the loop by a proportional
derivative (PD) controller:
I c ( K p y K d y ) (11)
The closed loop system dynamics then can be represented by the eq. (12). In case that the effective
damping k yi K d 0 and the effective stiffness k yi K p k yy 0 are positive then, according to the
Routh-Hurwitz criterion, the system is stable.

my(t ) (k yi K d k yy ) y (t ) k yi K d y (t ) 0 (12)

4. PID Tuning
The PID controller has the following input-output form
t
d
u (t ) K p e(t ) K i e( )d K d e(t ) (13)
0
dt
Where Kp, Ki, Kd are the PID gains (proportional, integral and derivative respectively). These
parameters have to be chosen in a suitable manner in order to provide better performance of the
system. A typical PID block is shown in Fig. 6.
A transfer function of a PID controller is expressed as,
Y (s) K
K p i sK d ( K d s 2 K p s K i ) / s (14)
R( s) s
Tunning the gain of each term of Kp, Ki,and Kd the controller behavior can be altered. The
optimized values can be obtained after several tests and each dynamical system can be controled
better using PI control, PD control, ID control or PID control. Here a PID and PD controler is
analysed refered on the AMB system.

4.1. Controller tuning for unbalanced forces (Case 1)

The force of the unbalance of a rotor is:
 M.G. Farmakopoulos, M.D. Thanou, P.G. Nikolakopoulos, C.A. Papadopoulos, A.P. Tzes

Fdx cos(t )
mub dub
2
(15)
Fdy s in(t )
Where mub is the unbalance mass, dub is the unbalance radius and is the rotational speed of the
rotor. Let us consider a mass of unbalance equal to 0.9 kg which is located at a radius of 50m from
the center of the rotor and at 1/1.95 distance from the steady side of the rotor (right side).
A simple PID [1] controler can be expressed by the following transfer function,
K
Gl K p i sK d (16)
s
The loop transfer function is,
K d s 2 K p s Ki k yi
Gl 2 (17)
s ms k yy
From the above the transfer function is expressed as,
Y (s) k yi K d s 2 k yi K p s k yi K i
(18)
Y * ( s ) ms 3 k yi k sn K d s 2 (k yi k sn K p k yy ) s k yi k sn K i
and the characteristic equation is,
ms 3 k yi k sn K d s 2 (k yi k sn K p k yy ) s k yi k sn K i 0 (19)
Where ksn is the sensor gain.

Figure 6: The control loop of simple PID controller

Plant here names the AMB device that follows the equations (1) to (4).
When an external force is added, such us an unbalance force the respective transfer function is:
y s
3 (20)
Fd ms k sn K d s (k yy k sn K p ) s k sn K i
2

From eqs. (13) - (20) the PID controler can be tuned using the two following rules:
Increasing the derivative controler gain the damping is generally increased.
Increasing propotional controler gain, a faster response can also be achieved.

The Matlab software is used in order to estimate the PID values. The below procedure have been
followed:
Firstly, the transfer function of the system, including the transfer function of the dynamical system
and the transfer function of the respective control scheme, was introduced in Matlab and then, through
the Single-Input-Single-Output (SISO) tool module of Matlab, the PID gains are obtained.
These gains, are referred to the specific equilibrium point (the center of the bearing) and without
any movement of the rotor and produced from the linearized equation of movement.
In reality, the initial position of the rotor is not the center of the bearing. In consequence, the rotor
has to move from its initial position to the position where it will operates, which in the most cases is
the center of the bearing. The equation of this movement of the rotor is not linear. In addition, when
the rotor arrives to the position where it will operate (the center of the bearing) and it rotates there,
then the rotor is not absolutely stable at that position, because of the unbalances which it has. So, in all
cases expressed from the linearized equation 6 from which the PID gains are produced, is not
absolutely correct.
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3 International Conference of Engineering Against Failure (ICEAF III)
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4.2 Controller tuning for unbalanced and gyroscopic

forces (case 2)
A more accurate AMB model considers the gyroscopic
coupling in the rotor. According the PID theory control
for robustness, a state feedback controller (centralized
control) is generally implemented in AMB, systems,
especially for high speed operation and when, Ip/Id (polar
inertia over transverse inertia) is not negligible. The
gyroscopic effect of a rotor is:

M y Fb x L I d I p (21)
and
M x Fby L I d I p (22) Figure 7: Equivalent two closed loop in
ID control
or in matrix form
M q G q k yy q k yi I (23)
where q is the bearing coordinates and {I} is the control current vector, and [G] is the gyroscopic
matrix, which is skew symmetric and it is defined as:
0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0
G I (24)
0 0 0 1 pz

0 0 1 0
and Ipz=mr2 is the moment of inertia in Z axis.
In addition to the above, [M] is a matrix describing the inertia of the rotor, defined as
m 0 0 0
0 m 0 0
M (25)
0 0 IT 0

0 0 0 IT
In this case the system (19) is more complex and cannot be decoupled. However we can still use
the simple model (10) and consider the forces caused from the gyroscopic effect as perturbations.
Using a PID controller the effect of these perturbations is practically zero when the system reaches the
steady state. This can be validated by eq. (20).
From the above eqs. (21) to (25) the transfer function of the system (PD) is:
1
( K p sTd )
ms k s
2
TG (26)
1
1 2 [( K p sTd )ki k sn ]
ms k x
or using only the derivative gain adjustment performance can be expressed as
Kd s
TG 3 (27)
s 2 y2
(1 y y
) s ( K d 2 y y
2
)s y
2

Td Td 2Td

The polar moment of inertia Ip of the rotor is:

I p md 2 / 8
(28)
4
The rotor is designed using CATIA software and the results are: I p 1.814 10 kg m 2 ,
m 1.376 kg , and the volume of the rotor: V = 2.04 104 m3.The transverce moment of inertia Id of
 M.G. Farmakopoulos, M.D. Thanou, P.G. Nikolakopoulos, C.A. Papadopoulos, A.P. Tzes

the rotor is calculated as:

Ip mL2
Id
2 12 (29)
The rotor is considered as a cylinder with diameter 0.032475m and length 0.2464m. Thus the
transverse moment of inertia is I d 7.052 103 kg m 2

5. Control of AMB Simulation

5.1. Input data

Let us consider a magnetic bearing with the following data: Horseshoe electromagnetic poles = 4,
permeability of vacuum = 0 = 410-7 N/A2, windings of coil per pole = 500, cross-section area of each
electromagnetic leg = 200 mm2, air gap size = 700 m, rotational speed =16 rps, Bias current in both
X and Y-direction= 0.2 Ampere, mass of the rotor = 1 Kg, step for the X-direction = 0 m to 0 m,
step for the Y-direction = -92 m to 0 m. The specific PID gains produced by the SISO tool of
Matlab for the above data are: Kp = 6146.3, Ki = 114670, Kd = 9.5405. For simplification, the same PID
gains of both the X and Y-directions are used, in both cases of unbalance and gyroscopic effects. The
following figure 8 illustrates the rotor. The rotor cannot move in Z-direction. In the left side, is inside
the active magnetic bearing and it can move in X and Y-directions, while in the right side, the rotor is
in a bearing of a motor, so it cannot move in X and Y-directions.

Figure 8: Geometry of the simulated rotor

6. Decentralized Control
A decentralized control scheme is discussed in this paragraph for the active magnetic bearing.
Decentralized control means the rotor is controlled by two independent PID controllers for X and Y
direction. The aforementioned PID gains are also used for simplicity. Fig. 9 illustrates the control
model of the magnetic bearing, which is modeled in Simulink module of Matlab.

Figure 9: Magnetic bearing control model in Simulink

In the above control model, we give a step for the Y-direction and a step for the X-direction. Then
this step is subtracted from the sensors signal, which represents the current position of the rotor. Then,
this signal is entered to the PID controller. After the PID controller, we add a gain, to simulate the
frequency in which the controller will operate. The two signals, one for each direction, entered in the
magnetic bearing model, where the non-linear equations of the movement of the rotor are. The results
are the position and the velocity of the rotor, in each direction. The position of the rotor in each
direction is returned in the system.
The Bode diagrams are also plotted for the magnetic bearing system related to case 1. The critical
system frequency and the critical gain can be determined from these diagrams. These particular values
can be used in order to regulate the PID controller. However, the SISO tool of Matlab is used here in
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3 International Conference of Engineering Against Failure (ICEAF III)
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order to tune the PID controller. The plots are a combination of a Bode magnitude plot, expressing the
magnitude of the frequency response gain (Fig. 10), and a Bode phase plot, expressing the frequency
response phase shift (Fig. 11).The sampling frequency of the active magnetic bearing was selected to
be 10 KHz, so from the Nyquist-Shannon sampling theorem, the diagrams stop at the half frequency,
which is 5 KHz. It should be noticed that these plots describe the discretized version of the system.
The main things to notice are that the nondimensionalized DC gain is 1 and the bandwidth of the
closed-loop system is 191 Hz.
Bode diagram Bode diagram
10 180

150
5
120

0 90

60
-5
Magnitude, dB

30

Phase, deg
-10 0

-30
-15
-60
-20 -90

-120
-25
-150
System with PID control System with PID control
-30 -180
10 100 1000 10000 10 100 1000 10000
Frequency, Hz Frequency, Hz

Figure 10: Bode magnitude diagram Figure 11: Bode phase diagram

7. Results
In this paragraph the dynamic response of the system described in paragraph 5 is presented. The
results presented for one unique case that the gains of the PID are Kp = 6146.3,Ki = 114670,Kd =
9.5405. For all the examined cases, the results are shown in the following figures 12 to 19. The rotors
initial position is taken in Y=-92m with the final desired position to be at Y=0. In case 2, where the
gyroscopic effects is taken into account too, the rotor moves from the position Y=-92m to Y=0, as
were in the case 1 too.
Orbit of rotor Orbit of rotor

-7 Case 1, unbalance
0,0 4,0x10
Case 2, unbalance+
gyroscopic
-5 -7
-2,0x10 2,0x10
Y Axis, m
Y Axis, m

-5
-4,0x10 0,0

-5
-6,0x10 -7
-2,0x10

-5
-8,0x10 Case 1, unbalance
-7
-4,0x10
Case 2, unbalance+
-4
gyroscopic -4,0x10
-7
-2,0x10
-7
0,0 2,0x10
-7 -7
4,0x10
-1,0x10
-4,0x10
-7
-2,0x10
-7
0,0 -7
2,0x10 4,0x10
-7
X Axis, m
X Axis, m
Figure 12: Orbit of the rotor in the active Figure 13: Orbit of the rotor in the active
magnetic bearing for Kp = 6146.3, Ki = 114670, magnetic bearing, at equilibrium point,
Kd = 9.5405. for Kp = 6146.3,Ki = 114670,Kd = 9.5405

Figs. 12 and 13 illustrate the position of the rotor in the active magnetic bearing. In case that only
the unbalance effect is taken into account (case 1), we can see that the rotor deviates from the
equilibrium position. In case that both gyroscopic and unbalance effects are taken into account, it is
observed that the gyroscopic effect does not influence the rotors movement so much.
In Figs. 14 to 16, we can see that the rotors movement is obtained in a sine form about the vertical
axes, versus time. Finally, Figs. 17, 18 and 19 illustrate the velocity of the rotor in the active magnetic
bearing, when it moves in the X and Y directions.
In case 2, where the gyroscopic effect is taken into account too, the rotor centre deviates from the
case 1 where only the unbalance is taken into account, but it not influence the rotors position so
 M.G. Farmakopoulos, M.D. Thanou, P.G. Nikolakopoulos, C.A. Papadopoulos, A.P. Tzes

much. In case 2, both the gyroscopic effect and the unbalance are taken into account. With the certain
data used, the gyroscopic effect does influence neither the rotors velocity nor the rotors position so
much. In Figs. 17 and 19, we can see that the rotors velocity is a sine form about the vertical axes,
versus time, with mean value equal to zero, when it achieves its final position.
Y-position of the rotor Y-position of the rotor
0,0
0,0

-6
-5
-2,0x10
-2,0x10

Y-position, m
Y-position, m

-6
-5 -4,0x10
-4,0x10

-6
-6,0x10
-5 -6,0x10

-5 -6
-8,0x10 Case 1, unbalance -8,0x10 Case 1, unbalance
Case 2, unbalance+ Case 2, unbalance+
gyroscopic gyroscopic
-4 -5
-1,0x10 -1,0x10
0,00 0,05 0,10 0,15 0,20 0,25 0,30 0,00 0,05 0,10 0,15 0,20 0,25 0,30
Time, sec Time, sec

Figure 14: Y-position of the rotor in the active Figure 15: Y-position of the rotor in the active
magnetic bearing, versus time, for Kp = 6146.3, magnetic bearing, versus time, closer to
Ki = 114670, Kd = 9.5405 equilibrium point, for Kp = 6146.3, Ki = 114670,
Kd = 9.5405

X-position of the rotor X-velocity of the rotor

-7
4,0x10
1,5x10
-4 Case 1, unbalance
Case 2, unbalance+
2,0x10
-7 gyroscopic
-4
1,0x10
0,0
X-velocity, m/sec
X-position, m

-7
-2,0x10 5,0x10
-5

-7
-4,0x10
0,0
-7
-6,0x10

-7
Case 1, unbalance -5
-8,0x10 Case 2, unbalance+ -5,0x10
gyroscopic
-6
-1,0x10 0,00 0,05 0,10 0,15 0,20 0,25 0,30
0,00 0,05 0,10 0,15 0,20 0,25 0,30
Time, sec
Time, sec
Figure 16: X-position of the rotor in the active Figure 17: X-velocity of the rotor in the active
magnetic bearing, versus time magnetic bearing, versus time, for Kp = 6146.3,
Ki = 114670, Kd = 9.5405
Y-velocity of the rotor Y-velocity of the rotor

0,035
Case 1, unbalance 0,0004 Case 1, unbalance
Case 2, unbalance+ Case 2, unbalance+
0,030
gyroscopic gyroscopic
0,025 0,0002
Y-velocity, m/sec
Y-velocity, m/sec

0,020

0,0000
0,015

0,010
-0,0002
0,005

0,000 -0,0004

-0,005
0,00 0,05 0,10 0,15 0,20 0,25 0,30 0,00 0,05 0,10 0,15 0,20 0,25 0,30

Time, sec Time, sec

Figure 18: Y-velocity of the rotor in the active Figure 19: Y-velocity of the rotor in the active
magnetic bearing, versus time, for Kp = 6146.3, magnetic bearing, versus time, closer to
Ki = 114670, Kd = 9.5405 equilibrium point, for Kp = 6146.3,
Ki = 114670, Kd = 9.5405
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3 International Conference of Engineering Against Failure (ICEAF III)
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8. Conclusions
As a result, we can see that it is important to solve the equations of motion of a rotor inside an
active magnetic bearing, mainly because the magnetic bearing is unsteady without an appropriate
control system.
Moreover, it is more suitable to simulate the rotors movement with the non-linear equations of
motion, than the linearized equations, because this is the real case.
From the results, we can see that the unbalance influence the movement of a rotor inside an active
magnetic bearing, while the gyroscopic effect do not influence, especially in low rotational speeds.

References
[1] Schweitzer G., Bleurer H. and Traxler A (1994). Active magnetic bearings. Hochschulverlag AG.
ETH Zurich. 244 p. ISBN 3-7281-2132-0.
[2] Knopf E and Nordmann R (2008). Active magnetic bearings for the accurate force measurement
in rotating machinery. The Fourth International Conference on Motion and Vibration Control.
ETH Zurich.
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