Calculation of forces and parameters of radial active magnetic bearing with eccentricities by finite element method

Load capacity, stiffness (current stiffness and position stiffness) are primary performance criterions of an active magnetic bearing (AMB) system. In this paper, the parameters of a linear model of radial magnetic bearings are calculated with eccentricities, and also use a nonlinear two-dimensional (2-D) finite element method (FEM) to calculated the parameters with same eccentricities, predict the force versus control current characteristics of a radial active magnetic bearing, the current stiffness and position stiffness are also calculated with eccentricities at different operation points, the magnetic field plot is showed, and predict the load capacity of the AMB. With these information, a radial active magnetic bearing can be analyzed and designed.