A novel integrated 4-DOF radial hybrid magnetic bearing for MSCMG

This paper proposes a novel integrated radial hybrid magnetic bearing (RHMB) for application with the small-sized magnetically suspended control moment gyroscope (MSCMG), which can control four degrees of freedom (4-DOFs), including two radial translational DOFs and two radial tilting DOFs, and provide the axial passive resilience. The configuration and working principle of the RHMB are introduced. Mathematical models of radial force, axial resilience and moment are established by using equivalent magnetic circuit method (EMCM), from which the radial force–radial displacement, radial force–current relationships are derived, as well as axial resilience–axial displacement, moment–tilting angle and moment–current. Finite element method (FEM) is also applied to analyze the performance and characteristics of the RHMB. The analysis results are in good agreement with that calculated by the EMCM, which is helpful in designing, optimizing and controlling the RHMB. The comparisons between the performances of the integrated 4-DOF RHMB and the traditional 4-DOF RHMB are made. The contrast results indicate that the proposed integrated 4-DOF RHMB possesses better performance compared to the traditional structure, such as copper loss, current stiffness, and tilting current stiffness.