Gimballing flywheel and its novel reluctance force-type magnetic bearing with low eddy loss and slight tilting torque

For magnetically suspended flywheel (MSFW) with gimballing capability, demerits of Lorentz force-type magnetic bearings and common reluctance force-type magnetic bearings are analyzed, a novel reluctance forcetype magnetic bearing (RFMB) including radial and axial magnetic bearing units with 4 separate biased permanent magnets and two conical stators is presented. By equivalent magnetic circuits' method, its magnetic properties are analyzed. To reduce the eddy loss, it was designed as radial poles with shoes and its rotor made of Iron-based amorphousness. Although the uniformity of magnetic flux density in the conical air gap determines mainly the additional tilting torque, the maximum additional tilting torques is 0.05Nm and the rotor tilting has no influence on its forces when the rotor tilts or the maximum changes does not exceed 14% when the rotor drifts and tilts simultaneously. The MSFW with this RFMB can meet the maneuvering requirement of spacecraft theoretically.