Implicit flux feedback control for magnetic bearings

Design and implementation of a dynamic system that includes magnetic bearings is dependent on knowledge of the relationship between the command input to the magnetic actuator and the force that the bearing actually applies to the rotor (or other structure) being controlled. Traditional designs relate the bearing coil current to the developed bearing force; unfortunately, the current-to-force relationship is not invariant to magnetic hysteresis, magnetic saturation, eddy current effects, or changes in the bearing air gap length. To overcome these limitations, an approach known as implicit flux feedback is explored. Since the gap force in a magnetic circuit is directly related to the flux in that gap, measuring the gap flux and employing it as a feedback state results in a bearing with an improved command-to-force relation which is less subject to the error sources mentioned above. Confirmation of the flux-to-force relationship is accomplished via experiments on a test apparatus specifically designed to allow simultaneous force and flux measurements on a single-axis magnetic bearing (using both laminated and solid magnetic components). Successful implementation of the flux feedback algorithm simplifies the control system design of magnetic bearing systems by providing a more accurate, well characterized actuator model, and, by overcoming such effects as hysteresis, saturation, eddy currents and gap dependence, this approach provides magnetic bearings which exhibit significantly improved dynamic performance.