Modeling of Electrodynamic

Nicola Amati
e-mail: nicola.amati@polito.it Bearings
Xavier De Lépine A new model of electrodynamic bearings is presented in this paper. The model takes into
e-mail: xavier.delepine@polito.it
account the R-L dynamics of the eddy currents on which this type of bearing is based,
making it valid for both quasistatic and dynamic analyses. In the quasistatic case, the
Andrea Tonoli model is used to obtain the force generated by an off-centered shaft rotating at a fixed
e-mail: andrea.tonoli@polito.it
speed in a constant magnetic field. The model is then used to analyze the dynamic
stability of a Jeffcott rotor supported by electrodynamic bearings. The essential role

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Department of Mechanics,
played by nonrotating damping in ensuring a stable operating range to the rotor is
Mechatronics Laboratory,
studied by means of root loci. Comparison with literature results is finally used to vali-
Politecnico di Torino,
date the model. 关DOI: 10.1115/1.2981170兴
Duca degli Abruzzi 24
10129 Torino, Italy Keywords: eddy current, induction bearing, rotordynamics, stability, electromechanical
interaction

1 Introduction tive configurations of electrodynamic suspensions, including Hall-

bach arrays, to reduce the threshold speed to achieve elastic be-
The principle of electrodynamic bearings relies on the motion
havior.
of a conductor in a magnetic field. Their relative motion causes a In the past few years, Lembke 关6,7兴 studied electrodynamic
variation of the magnetic flux linked to the conductor. It generates bearings for turbomolecular pumps. He investigated different con-
an electromotive force that induces eddy currents, which in turn figurations of bearings through finite element modeling. He per-
generate electromagnetic forces. The mechanical effect is a func- formed most analyses for an off-centered shaft rotating at constant
tion of the motion frequency. If it is lower than the R-L dynamics speed 共quasistatic conditions兲. Similar studies were performed in
of the eddy currents, the interaction generates a viscous damping Ref. 关8兴.
force. By converse, for higher frequencies an elastic restoring In Refs. 关9,10兴, Filatov and Maslen presented theoretical and
force is produced. experimental developments about a high speed flywheel, designed
The principle can be applied to rotating systems, in which elec- for energy storage applications. A discussion on the influence of
tromagnetic forces are generated to levitate the rotating part. Con- the electrical parameters of the rotating conductor was initiated,
sider a conductor connected to a rotor and the magnetic field fixed and stability issues were introduced. In Ref. 关11兴, the same authors
to the stator. The combination of the rotor spinning and whirling presented a finite element analysis performed for another fly-
may generate a variation of the flux linkage, and thus forces acting wheel. In that work, the electrodynamic bearing was characterized
on the rotor. They depend on the rotational speed. If the latter is in quasistatic configurations, and the conditions needed to stabi-
low, the electromagnetic forces are tangential and aligned with the lize the rotating system were quantified.
velocity. They are destabilizing. At high speeds, these forces be- In the developments presented by Sandtner and Bleuler in Refs.
come radial and proportional to the eccentricity. It is worth em- 关12–14兴, test rigs were built to evaluate the efficiency of various
phasizing that high and low speeds are related to the electric pole configurations of electrodynamic bearings to control the axial vi-
of the eddy currents. This effect is similar to what occurs in a brations of the rotor. Taken as a whole, there is much less litera-
hydrodynamic bearing where fluid forces are generated because of ture on electrodynamic bearings than for active magnetic bear-
the rotor whirling. Further similarity to hydrodynamic bearings ings.
can also be found in linear motions, in which electrodynamic Presently, the design of electrodynamic bearings is based on the
force-to-angular-speed characteristic obtained for a fixed eccen-
principle is applied to achieve levitation using an array of magnets
tricity. Although this characteristic describes the behavior of the
sliding over a track of nonmagnetic conductor 关1,2兴.
bearing in quasistatic conditions, it is not suitable for dynamic
The levitation is obtained in electrodynamic bearings by pas-
conditions where the rotor is animated by a nonsynchronous
sive means; thus, no electronic equipment, such as power elec- whirl, or even a nonperiodic motion about the stator axis. A model
tronics or sensors, are necessary for them to be functional. As that can explicitly describe both quasistatic and dynamic condi-
such, electrodynamic suspensions are an alternative to active mag- tions remains to be developed.
netic suspensions, as they are less complex, less subject to failure, The aim of the present paper is to model the dynamic behavior
and possibly far lower in cost. Nevertheless, electrodynamic bear- of rotors supported by electrodynamic bearings to study their sta-
ings have drawbacks: The achievable stiffness and damping are bility. Therefore, it becomes possible to single out the parameters
relatively low compared to active magnetic devices. Besides, that are relevant for an electrodynamic bearing to be functional,
similarly to hydrodynamic supports, electrodynamic systems pro- and thus optimize the design procedure. The approach is based on
vide levitation only when the relative speed is above a threshold the electromechanical dynamics of a conductor in translation in a
value, which opens stability issues at low speeds. constant magnetic field. Several papers have been published on
First interests in electrodynamic bearings can be found in the this topic in literature 关15–19兴. In Refs. 关20–22兴, the inductive
work of Basore 关3兴. Post and co-workers 关4,5兴 presented innova- effect has been taken into account in addition to the resistive one
in the eddy current dynamics. The effect of the inductance is to
introduce a pole in the electromechanical impedance. For frequen-
Contributed by the Technical Committee on Vibration and Sound of ASME for
publication in the JOURNAL OF VIBRATION AND ACOUSTICS. Manuscript received
cies lower than this pole, the eddy current damper behaves as a
February 7, 2008; final manuscript received July 12, 2008; published online October viscous damper, while for higher frequencies it behaves as a
15, 2008. Assoc. Editor: Alan B. Palazzolo. spring. As this pole could fall within the working frequency range

Journal of Vibration and Acoustics Copyright © 2008 by ASME DECEMBER 2008, Vol. 130 / 061007-1
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Fig. 1 Short-circuited rigid coil in motion into a constant magnetic field B.
The resistive and inductive parameters of the moving conductor, R and L,
respectively, are due to the conductor itself „subscript c… and an additional
part „subscript add…. If a force F is applied on the coil, its resulting velocity
ẋ induces eddy currents that create a force opposed and equal in magnitude
to F. The dynamics of the system is equivalent to a spring-damper in series,
whose parameters are referred to as k and c.

of the electromechanical damper, it must be considered when ing Kirchoff’s voltage law to the electric circuit including the
modeling the device. In the present study, this model is transposed resistance R, the self-inductance L, and the back electromotive
to the case of a rotating conductor in order to describe its behavior force. The output equation recalls the second row of Eq. 共1兲 to
in both quasistatic and dynamic conditions. This model is first obtain the force F as a function of the state i as follows:
used to study the characteristics of the bearing at fixed eccentric-
ity. Then, it is adopted to analyze the stability of a rotor supported di Km
by electrodynamic bearings. The case of a Jeffcott rotor is chosen = − ␻RLi + ẋ
to this end essentially for its simplicity. It is shown that an elec- dt L
trodynamic bearing is unconditionally unstable if used alone. 共3兲
Therefore, in the last part of the paper, the model is used to com- F = K mi
pute the amount of nonrotating damping that is necessary to bring ␻RL 共rad/s兲 is the electrical pole of the system 共␻RL = R / L兲.
the bearing to stability. The model is finally validated by compar- The input velocity to output force transfer function can be ob-
ing its results to those available in literature. tained from Eq. 共3兲 as
2 Modeling of Electrodynamic Bearings and Quasi- Km2
/R
static Characterization F= ẋ 共4兲
1 + s/␻RL
The aim of the present section is to describe the proposed
model of an electrodynamic bearing. To introduce the basic foun- It is the same as for a purely mechanical system made of a linear
dations of the model, Sec. 2.1 recalls the model of a one degree of spring and a viscous damper in series. The stiffness and damping
freedom eddy current damper of motional type. This model is then coefficients k and c of this mechanical analogue are valued as
extended to the case of a conductor rotating in a stationary mag- follows 关20兴:
netic field 共Sec. 2.2兲. The model is then used to characterize the
electrodynamic bearing in quasistatic conditions 共Sec. 2.3兲. 2
k = Km /L
2.1 Equivalent Mechanical Model of a Conductor Trans- 共5兲
lating in a Magnetic Field. In its simplest form, a motional eddy
2
c = Km /R
current damper is constituted by a linear voice coil whose electric As a matter of fact, equilibrium and consistency considerations
terminals are shunted by a resistive and inductive load. The be- on a linear spring and a viscous damper in series lead to state and
havior of this system is found starting from the velocity 共m / s兲 to output equations that are formally the same as Eq. 共3兲,
back electromotive force ␧bemf 共V兲, and current i 共A兲 to force F
共N兲 characteristics 关23,24兴 of the voice coil as q̇ = − ␻RLq + ẋ
␧bemf = Kmẋ 共6兲
共1兲 F = kq
F = K mi
where q 共m兲 is the spring elongation. The pole ␻RL of the equiva-
where ẋ is the relative velocity between the actuator’s coil and the lent mechanical system is the ratio between its 共equivalent兲 stiff-
constant magnetic field. In the case of Fig. 1 layout in which a ness and damping 共␻RL = k / c兲.
rigid rectangular coil moves along the x direction in a constant The analogy between the electromechanical system and the
magnetic field 共normal to the plane of motion兲, the electrome- spring and damper in series is considered in the following as a sort
chanical constant Km 共N/A兲 can be approximated as of visual aid to represent in a shorthand notation the electrome-
chanical interaction occurring in one direction of motion. This aid
Km = NBl 共2兲
is exploited in the following section to obtain a model of the
B 共T兲 is the constant magnetic field going out of the page, while N electrodynamic bearing. The choice to make reference to the me-
and l 共m兲 are the number of windings and the active length of the chanical analog instead of the electromechanical state equations
rigid coil, respectively. has been adopted because the reference frame issue can be estab-
As the coil is short-circuited, the state equation that gives the lished on a more intuitive basis, which is a key point when dealing
current as a function of the input velocity ẋ is obtained by apply- with rotating machines.

061007-2 / Vol. 130, DECEMBER 2008 Transactions of the ASME

 Fig. 3 Variables and parameters of the electrodynamic bear-
ing model

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Fig. 2 Simplified scheme of a conductor rotating in a mag-
netic field. ⍀ is the rotation speed of the conductor. The syn-
chronous whirling is presented as a particular configuration of
rotation: The precession speed is equal to the rotation speed, could become an issue, and in that case the improvement of the
and the part of the conductor that crosses the magnetic field is model would be necessary. The variables used for the model are
always the same „darkened area….
presented in Fig. 3.
Consistently with the fact that the force is expressed in the
rotating frame, the spring-damper behaviordescribed in the previ-
ous paragraph is simply duplicated in both directions of 共O , ␰ , ␩兲.
2.2 Modeling of the Forces Generated by a Conductor Ro- Similarly as in Eq. 共6兲, the force generated by the bearing is mod-
tating in a Constant Magnetic Field. Figure 2 reports a simpli- eled as proportional to the elongation of each spring as follows:
fied scheme of a conductor rotating in a constant magnetic field F␰ = kq␰
defined as going out of the page. O and C are the geometrical
共7兲
centers of the magnetic field and the rotating conductor, respec-
F␩ = kq␩
tively. Axes 共O , x , y兲 refer to the reference frame fixed to the
magnetic field, and ⍀ is the rotation speed of the conductor. Axes where q␰ and q␩ are the elongations of the springs along the ro-
共O , ␰ , ␩兲 are introduced to model the forces generated by the bear- tating frame axes 共O , ␰ , ␩兲, obtained through the state equations:
ing, and are rotating at ⍀. In what follows, axes 共O , ␰ , ␩兲 are
q̇␰ = − ␻RLq␰ + ␰˙ c
simply referred to as the rotating frame, while axes 共O , x , y兲 are
referred to as the inertial frame. The pairs 共xc , y c兲 and 共␰c , ␩c兲 are 共8兲
q̇␩ = − ␻RLq␩ + ␩˙ c
then the coordinates of C in 共O , x , y兲 and 共O , ␰ , ␩兲, respectively.
In order to understand why a rotating frame must be introduced The complex notation is introduced at this point to obtain more
into the model, some remarks on the generation of the electromag- compact equations 关25兴. The coordinates of point C, the spring
netic force might be necessary. As presented in the previous part, elongations, and the components of the force are then assembled
eddy currents arise into the conductor only if it undergoes a varia- in the following complex variables:
tion of magnetic flux. Hence, the generation of electromagnetic ␨c = ␰c + j ␩c
forces is only the consequence of a variation of flux into the
conductor. However, in the case of a rotating conductor on elec- q␨ = q␰ + jq␩ 共9兲
trodynamic bearings, the electromagnetic forces are related to the
motion of the magnetic field relative to the conductor, i.e., relative F␨ = F␰ + jF␩
to a frame rotating at speed ⍀. To illustrate the implications of this
statement, the example of a synchronous whirling configuration is The state and output equations 共8兲 and 共7兲 relating the input ve-
presented in the upper-right corner of Fig. 2. locity 共relative velocity between the conductor and the magnetic
In that configuration, the rotation speed of the conductor about field兲 and the output force 共due to eddy currents兲 are then ex-
C is the same as the whirling speed of C about O, as highlighted pressed in complex coordinates as
by the dot on the periphery of the rotor. If an observer is located
q̇␨ = − ␻RLq␨ + ␨˙ c
on O and always “looks” toward the rotating conductor, he “sees”
always the same area of the conductor that crosses the magnetic 共10兲
field; therefore the bearing does not generate forces. A variation of F␨ = kq␨
magnetic flux will occur only if the distance between O and C The obtained state and output equation of the electrodynamic
changes overtime. The important point is that the resulting force is bearing can be interfaced to the model of the mechanical system
a function of the motion of C in the frame of the observer, i.e., in in which the bearing is integrated. The speed ␨˙ c of point C is both
a frame rotating at ⍀ with O as the origin. the output of the mechanical system and the input of the electro-
The state equations of the conductor are obtained at this point dynamic bearing 共first row in Eq. 共10兲兲, while the force F␨ is the
taking the following assumptions into account: 共1兲 The conductor input of the mechanical system and the output of the electrody-
is isotropic, which means that the inductive and resistive param- namic bearing.
eters are independent of the angle between the rotating frame and The coordinates of point C in 共O , x , y兲 are expressed in com-
the inertial frame. 共2兲 The magnetic field of the stator is constant plex notation as
and its distribution is axissymmetric about point O. 共3兲 The speed
of point C in the rotating frame 共␰˙ c , ␩˙ c兲 is assumed as input in the zc = xc + jy c 共11兲
model, the forces 共F␰, F␩兲 being the corresponding output. 共4兲 No where zc is the complex coordinate of C in the inertial frame. zc is
thermal properties have been introduced into the model, which also referred to as the eccentricity of the conductor with respect to
implies that the inductive and resistive parameters of the conduc- the magnetic field, and is assumed to be small compared to the
tor remain unchanged whatever the temperature and the rotation dimensions of the conductor.
speed. For some rotation speeds, the influence of temperature As said earlier, axes 共O , ␰ , ␩兲 rotate at the angular speed ⍀. For

Journal of Vibration and Acoustics DECEMBER 2008, Vol. 130 / 061007-3

simplicity, axes 共O , ␰ , ␩兲 are chosen such that they coincide with
共O , x , y兲 when t = 0. The relation between the coordinates of point
C in the inertial frame and the rotating frame is
␨c = zce−j⍀t 共12兲
Likewise, the relation between the force in the inertial frame Fz
and in the rotating frame F␨ is given by
F␨ = Fze−j⍀t 共13兲
The relative velocity between the conductor and the magnetic
field is then computed as

␨˙ c = 共zc − j⍀zc兲e−j⍀t 共14兲

Fig. 4 Evolution of the electromagnetic force Fz generated by

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It is worth to emphasize that the synchronous whirling case cor- the electrodynamic bearing for increasing rotation speeds. F¸
responds to the velocity of point C as żc = j⍀zc in the inertial and F
are the contributions of the force parallel and perpen-
dicular to the eccentricity, respectively. It can be shown that
frame, and ␨˙ c = 0 in the rotating frame 共Eq. 共14兲兲. As a result, the 円F¸„␻RL…円 = 円F
„␻RL…円.
spring elongation q␨ and the electromagnetic force are equal to
zero 共Eq. 共10兲兲, consistently with the discussion on synchronous
whirling presented earlier 共Fig. 2兲.
rotation speeds. It is interesting to note that also the phase shift
共referred to with ␪兲 between the force and the eccentricity changes
2.3 Characterization of the Bearing Through a Quasistatic
Analysis. The purpose of this section is to demonstrate how the according to the rotation speed. In fact, ␪ covers the 关−␲ / 2 , 0兴
computation of the electromagnetic forces in a quasistatic analysis angle range for increasing rotation speeds. For ␪ = −␲ / 2, the force
can be used to identify the specific parameters of the bearing that is perpendicular to the eccentricity z0, while for ␪ = 0, the force is
are necessary for the stability study. In fact, eddy current dynam- parallel to z0. In addition, it can be demonstrated that Fz describes
ics, and consequently the force generated by the bearing, are in- a k / 2兩z0兩 radius circle around the point k / 2z0.
fluenced by the material and the geometry of the conductor, which This property can be formalized using the complex notation, as
determine its inductive and resistive parameters. In general, those it takes into account both the amplitude and phase of the force
characteristics are difficult to obtain analytically, and in literature with respect to the eccentricity. For simplicity, Eq. 共18兲 can be
关6–8,11兴, the bearing is commonly characterized using quasistatic expressed more conveniently as
performance curves. This method consists in positioning the con- k c⍀

冉 冊 冉 冊
ductor at a constant eccentricity, and imposing a constant rotation Fz = 2 z0 −j 2 z0 = F储 + jF⬜ 共19兲
speed relative to the magnetic field. The amplitude and the orien- ␻RL ⍀
1+ 1+
tation in space of the force generated by the bearing are then used ⍀ ␻RL
to estimate the supporting capabilities of the bearing. This method where F储 and F⬜ are the components of the force parallel and
has the advantage to remain consistent for any type of inductive perpendicular to the eccentricity z0, respectively. Through Eq.
bearing. Up to now, this analysis has been mainly performed nu- 共19兲, the stiffness and damping contributions of the bearing be-
merically through finite element analyses. come clearer. For rotation speeds much lower than the electric
A constant eccentricity of the conductor means that xc and y c pole of the conductor, F⬜ is larger than F储. In other words, the
remain unchanged 共zc = z0 = const兲. Using Eq. 共14兲, the displace- damping effect overwhelms the stiffening effect; thus, the force is
ment and velocity of point C in the rotating frame are proportional to the relative velocity and perpendicular to the ec-
␨c = z0e−j⍀t centricity 共␪ ⬇ −␲ / 2兲 as
共15兲 ⍀ Ⰶ ␻RL
␨˙ c = − j⍀z0e−j⍀t 共20兲
Equation 共15兲 shows that point C describes a circle in the rotating Fz ⬇ − jc⍀z0 = − c⍀z0e j共␲/2兲
frame, with an angle equal to −⍀t and a constant radius equal to Instead, for rotation speeds much higher than the electric pole of
兩z0兩. The second row of Eq. 共15兲 emphasizes that the velocity goes the conductor, F⬜ becomes negligible compared to F储, and the
along a direction perpendicular to the eccentricity z0 共through the bearing tends to generate a force proportional to the eccentricity,
complex parameter j兲 at a value of ⍀兩z0兩. Similarly to Eq. 共15兲, the just like a linear spring 共␪ ⬇ 0兲,
spring elongation q␨ can be computed as
⍀ Ⰷ ␻RL
q␨ = qz0e−j⍀t 共21兲
共16兲 Fz ⬇ kz0
q̇␨ = − j⍀qz0e−j⍀t A plot of both forces is presented in Fig. 5, and can be used as
If Eq. 共10兲 is used, the external force needed to balance the elec- follows: 共1兲 Identify the electric pole of the bearing as the rotation
tromagnetic force in the rotating frame is finally obtained as speed for which 兩F⬜兩 is maximum. 共2兲 Identify the value of the
damping parameter of the bearing. In fact, F⬜ reaches a maximum
k⍀共⍀ − j␻RL兲
F␨ = z0e−j⍀t 共17兲 F⬜max for ⍀ = ␻RL as
␻RL
2
+ ⍀2
⍀兩F⬜兩max = ␻RL
Using Eq. 共13兲, the force is expressed in the inertial frame as
共22兲
k⍀共⍀ − j␻RL兲 c␻RL
Fz = F␨e j⍀t = z0 共18兲 兩F⬜兩max = 兩z0兩
␻RL
2
+ ⍀2 2
Equation 共18兲 shows that the electromagnetic force acting on C is Similarly, the magnitude of the ratio 兩Fz / z0兩 can also be used to
a function of the rotation speed ⍀, as presented in Fig. 4. It can be identify the bearing parameters. In that case, the slope at low
seen that 兩Fz兩 goes from zero 共for ⍀ = 0兲 to a limit value for high rotation frequencies equals c, while the ratio tends to k at high

061007-4 / Vol. 130, DECEMBER 2008 Transactions of the ASME

 external force are merged into a generic disturbance force Fd. The
stability of the system is studied by plotting the poles 共root loci兲 of
the system transfer function between the input disturbance 共Fd兲
and the displacement of point C 共zc兲 as function of the rotating
speed. As a matter of fact, Eq. 共23兲 implies that the poles are
expressed in the inertial frame, while the variables of Eq. 共10兲 are
expressed in the rotating frame. Thus, for consistency with Eq.
共23兲, those variables must be expressed in the inertial frame.
The relation between the rotating frame and the inertial frame
defined in Eq. 共12兲 is used to compute the spring velocity in the
Fig. 5 Forces generated by the electrodynamic bearing „Eq. rotating frame 共q̇␨兲 as a function of the spring velocity in the
„19……. F
and F¸ are perpendicular and parallel to the constant inertial frame 共q̇z兲 as follows
eccentricity, respectively. They meet the same value of k円z0円 / 2

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= c␻RL円z0円 / 2 for Ω = ␻RL. For high rotation speeds, 円F¸円 and 円F
円 q␨ = qze−j⍀t
tend to k円z0円 and 0, respectively. 共24兲
q̇␨ = 共qz − j⍀qz兲e−j⍀t
Introducing Eq. 共24兲 into Eq. 共10兲, and taking Eq. 共14兲 into ac-
rotation speeds. The electric pole of the bearing is then simply count, the state and output equation of the bearing in the inertial
computed using Eq. 共5兲 共␻RL = k / c兲. frame becomes
In this section, it has been shown that the computation of the
forces generated by the bearing in quasistatic conditions can be 共q̇z − j⍀qz兲e−j⍀t = − ␻RLqze−j⍀t + 共żc − j⍀zc兲e−j⍀t
used to identify its characteristic parameters. They can be used to 共25兲
study the stability of a rotor supported by the same bearing, as Fz = F␨e j⍀t = 共kqze−j⍀t兲e j⍀t = kqz
presented in the following section. Equations 共23兲 and 共25兲 are a set of equations that must be solved
The aim of the model given in Eqs. 共18兲 and 共19兲 is to demon- in parallel. In a general way, ⍀ could be considered as a function
strate that the proposed modeling approach is consistent with the of time. This would introduce time-varying coefficients 共terms in
results given in literature. As shown in Fig. 5, it is clear that F⬜ ⍀共t兲兲 into Eq. 共25兲 and a coupling effect between the torsional and
and F储 are strongly nonlinear with respect to the rotation speed ⍀. lateral behaviors. Nevertheless, if ⍀ varies slowly with respect to
However, it must be stressed that those forces have been obtained ␻RL, as it is commonly done in rotordynamics 关25兴, ⍀ can be
from Eq. 共10兲, which is intrinsically linear, under the assumption considered as constant with time.
that the center of the rotating conductor C still remains relative to The use of Laplace’s transform leads to the following equa-
the magnetic field, and the rotation speed ⍀ is constant. Conse- tions:
quently, Eq. 共18兲 is no longer valid when point C moves relative
to the magnetic field, like in dynamic conditions 共stability analy- 共s + ␻RL − j⍀兲qz共s兲 = 共s − j⍀兲zc共s兲
sis兲. 共26兲
Fz共s兲 = kqz共s兲
3 Stability of a Jeffcott Rotor on Electrodynamic which give the force Fz共s兲 as a function of zc共s兲 as follows:
Bearings
共s − j⍀兲
By its nature, the stability analysis of a rotor on electrodynamic Fz共s兲 = k zc共s兲 共27兲
共s + ␻RL − j⍀兲
bearings requires one to consider that the center of the conductor
共point C兲 is moving relative to the magnetic field. Therefore, the Equation 共23兲 is also expressed in Laplace’s transform. The force
expression of the force given in Eq. 共18兲 共Fig. 5兲 cannot be used expressed in Eq. 共27兲 is then substituted in Eq. 共23兲 to finally
for this study. Instead, the general expression of the force given in obtain the transfer function “disturbance to displacement” as
Eq. 共10兲 must be exploited for the analysis. As this expression is zc共s兲 s + ␻RL − j⍀
linear, the stability analysis through the study of the system poles = 3 共28兲
is justified. Fd共s兲 ms + m共␻RL − j⍀兲s2 + ks − j⍀k
This section is devoted to the stability study of a rotor running Equation 共28兲 emphasizes the influence of the mass on the bearing
at constant speed on electrodynamic bearings. A Jeffcott rotor stability. The undamped natural frequency ␻0 = 冑k / m 共rad/s兲 of the
model has been used for this purpose. The goal is to study the mass m supported by a spring of stiffness k is introduced here to
behavior of the bearing without adding the effects of other phe- gain a better insight in the system parameters.
nomena such as the gyroscopy and the rotor flexibility. The roles The system poles are obtained for each value of the rotating
played by rotating and nonrotating dampings on the rotor stability speed ⍀ 共root loci兲 as the solutions of the following equation:
are then underlined.
The main assumptions are as follows: 共1兲 The rotor is rigid, its s3 + 共␻RL − j⍀兲s2 + ␻20s − j⍀␻20 = 0 共29兲
inertia properties are represented only by its mass m, while all its Equation 共29兲 is a third order polynomial, which should not be
moments of inertia are neglected. 共2兲 The conductor is rigidly surprising. Intuitively, the second order dynamics of the rotor
mounted on the rotor and its contribution is taken into account in model are combined to the electric dynamics 共electrodynamic
the rotor mass. 共3兲 The electrical and electromechanical properties bearing兲.
of the electrodynamic bearing are isotropic 共as in the previous In what follows, a simple numerical resolution for every ⍀ has
section兲. 共4兲 The stator part of the electrodynamic bearing is fixed been carried out. It should give a sufficient insight of the system
to ground. 共5兲 The center of gravity of the rotor is at a distance ⑀ behavior. Figure 6 shows the evolution of the root loci for increas-
共eccentricity兲 from the geometrical center C of the rotating con- ing rotation speeds. s1共⍀兲 is the pole located in the right-hand part
ductor 共see Fig. 3兲. The equation of motion of the rotor is given by of the complex plane. In the left-hand part of the complex plane,
mz̈c + Fz = m⑀⍀2e j⍀t + Fext = Fd 共23兲 s2共⍀兲 and s3共⍀兲 are the lower and upper poles, respectively. It can
be noticed that the poles at ⍀ = 0 are those of a mass on a spring-
where Fz is the force generated by the electrodynamic bearing,
damper in series. Their values are
given by Eq. 共13兲. Fext is introduced as an external disturbance
force applied onto the system. Both the actions of unbalance and s1共⍀ = 0兲 = 0

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Fig. 6 Poles of the Jeffcott rotor on an electrodynamic bear-
ing. The poles at ⍀ = 0 are inside the boxes. s1 is always posi- Fig. 7 Basic principle of electrodynamic bearings stabilized
tive and is always in the right-hand part of the complex plane, with a nonrotating eddy current damper. The nonrotating
while s2 and s3 are always in the left-hand part of the complex damping effect takes place in the conductor fixed to the stator
plane. „bottom of the figure….

s2,3共⍀ = 0兲 = −
␻RL
2
⫿j 冑 冉 冊
␻20 −
␻RL
2
2
共30兲 contribution, which is consistent with the quasistatic analysis pre-
sented earlier 共Fig. 5兲. Nevertheless, the fact that R共s1兲 is always
The most important feature of the computation of the root loci lies positive drives to the conclusion that the rotor is unconditionally
on the evolution of the right-hand root s1. Although s1 is located at unstable in that configuration.
the origin of the complex plane for ⍀ = 0, it enters the right part of Some additive remarks might be necessary to understand the
the complex plane as soon as the rotor starts its rotation 共i.e., ⍀ main guidelines that have been followed in literature to stabilize
⬎ 0兲. Besides, for higher rotation speeds, although s1 converges systems supported by electrodynamic bearings. Basically, rotating
toward the imaginary axis 共⍀ → ⬁兲, it still remains on the right damping leads to instability mostly because it converts energy
part of the complex plane. This unstable state is due to the rotating from rotational dynamics into lateral dynamics, introducing en-
damping contribution of the bearing 关25兴. ergy into the system rather than dissipating it. Therefore, it is
Furthermore, it can be noticed that I共s3兲 steadily increases natural to think about a system that dissipates energy by nonrotat-
along with the rotation speed, while R共s3兲 tends to −␻RL. The ing means. In other words, the dissipated energy must flow
system poles for infinite rotation speeds become through the stator, instead of the rotor. By doing so, the destabi-
lizing influence of the rotating damping introduced by the bearing
s1共⬁兲 = + j␻0 would be reduced, until its stiffness contribution would ensure the
suspension of the rotating conductor and stabilize the system. This
s2共⬁兲 = − j␻0 共31兲 stabilization would take place above a threshold rotation speed,
which would correspond to the balance of every effects 共rotating
s3共⬁兲 = − ␻RL + j⍀ damping, nonrotating damping, and stiffness effects兲. In order to
The imaginary part of s3共⬁兲 is due to the rotation of the conductor. meet this specification, it is rather direct to think about a contact-
In fact, the pole of the spring-damper contribution is computed in less device that would take advantage of the same principle of the
the inertial frame through Eq. 共29兲, while it actually rotates. If the electrodynamic bearing itself, i.e., to use eddy current effects to
computation of the poles were performed from Eq. 共23兲, but this generate a force that would provide nonrotating damping. For that
time expressed in the rotating frame, the following poles would be reason, in most investigations on electrodynamic bearings, eddy
obtained: current dampers have been added 关9,11,14兴, as shown in Fig. 7.
The basic configuration is to mount a permanent magnet on the
s1␨共⬁兲 = + j␻0 − j⍀ rotor and a nonmagnetic conductor on the stator in which the eddy
currents take place. Therefore, the damping effect is no longer
s2␨共⬁兲 = − j␻0 − j⍀ 共32兲 rotating along with the conductor, but is fixed to the stator frame
instead.
s3␨共⬁兲 = − ␻RL Consequently, this additional damper has its own electrome-
where s1␨, s2␨, and s3␨ are the root loci of the system in the rotat- chanical dynamics of R-L type, whose behavior must be taken
ing frame. In that case, the electric pole s3␨ at infinite rotation into account in the model to accurately estimate the stability prop-
speed would be constant at −␻RL, which is consistent to the state erties of the bearing. Similarly to previous developments, this
equation of the spring-damper expressed in the rotating frame in could be done with an additional set of nonrotating spring-damper
Eq. 共10兲. Further, s1␨ and s2␨ are the poles of a mass spring system in series connecting the rotor to the ground. For simplicity, only
linked to the inertial frame, but whose poles are computed in the nonrotating viscous damping is introduced in the next section. We
rotating frame. believe that this choice should facilitate through the comprehen-
For stability concerns, the analysis of the poles drives to the sion of the phenomena that bring stability to the rotor on electro-
same conclusions whatever the frame 共rotating or inertial兲 in dynamic bearings.
which they are expressed. Hence, for simplicity, the stability
analysis is performed only in the inertial frame later on. Likewise,
as the electric pole s3 is always on the left-hand side of the com-
plex plane, it is no longer involved in the stability analysis. 4 Stability With Nonrotating Viscous Damping
The study of the roots s1 and s2 is useful to comprehend the The introduction of a nonrotating viscous damping force of
basic behavior of the bearing. For very high rotation speeds, the coefficient cn 共N s/m兲 in the Jeffcott rotor model modifies Eq. 共23兲
damping contribution of the bearing is overwhelmed by the spring as

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Fig. 8 Evolution of the poles of the system with nonrotating Fig. 9 Adimensional study of the stability properties of a ge-
damping added. Like before, the real part of s1 is positive for neric electrodynamic bearing combined with an additive nonro-
low values of ⍀, which means that the rotating damping is still tating viscous damper. The plots have been computed for vari-
preponderant. Nevertheless, s1 crosses the imaginary axis as ous values of ␦. It can be noticed that for higher values of ␦
soon as ⍀ is higher than a threshold value, referred to as ⍀s. „lower values of m…, lower rotation speeds are necessary to
stabilize the bearing.

mz̈c + cnżc + Fz = Fd 共33兲 ␣ = cn/c

Following the same reasoning as in Sec. 3, the system poles are 共37兲
the solutions of ␦ = ␻0/␻RL

冉 冊 冉 冊
The adimensional parameter ␣ is used to compare the nonrotating
cn cn and rotating damping parameters. ␦ scales the mass m of the rotor
s3 + + ␻RL − j⍀ s2 + 共␻RL − j⍀兲 + ␻20 s − j⍀␻20 = 0
m m with respect to the bearing 共for the same bearing, the higher is ␦,
共34兲 the lower is the mass m of the rotor兲. The same method holds for
the stabilizing rotation speed ⍀s and the Laplace variable s. At
The analysis of the root loci is used to estimate the rotating speed last, Eq. 共34兲 is expressed in adimensional terms as
above which the system is stable. In fact, the computation of the
roots at low rotation speeds shows that R共s1兲 ⬎ 0, which expresses s*3 + 共␣␦2 + 1 − j␤兲s*2 + ␦2共␣共1 − j␤兲 + 1兲s* − j␦2␤ = 0
that the rotor is still unstable. This behavior is visible if the roots 共38兲
are plotted on the complex plane for increasing rotation speeds, as
displayed in Fig. 8. However, it is also visible that for a certain where ␤ and s* are defined as
rotation speed, root s1 crosses the imaginary axis from the right ␤ = ⍀s/␻RL
side to the left side of the complex plane. At this point, the rota- 共39兲
tion speed that brings stability to the rotating system can be iden- s* = s/␻RL
tified, and is referred as ⍀s, valid only for the initial nonrotating
damping cn that has been chosen. Equation 共38兲 has been used to obtain a family of plots based on
This reasoning is supported by the computation of the roots of the adimensional parameters newly defined and thus it no longer
Eq. 共34兲 at infinite rotation speeds, computed as follows: depends on one particular bearing. Those plots 共Fig. 9兲 can be
read differently according to the data available during the bearing
s1共⬁兲 = ␻0共− ␴ + j冑1 − ␴2兲 design. However, it is assumed that two parameters among k, c,
and ␻RL are obtained from technical specifications. In that case,
s2共⬁兲 = ␻0共− ␴ − j冑1 − ␴2兲 共35兲 the study can be formulated as follows: For a given rotor mass m,
␦ is defined. Thus, for a rotating system stable at ⍀s = ␤␻RL 共im-
posed兲, a nonrotating viscous damping of cn = ␣c is required. Sure
s3共⬁兲 = − ␻RL + j⍀
enough, if the nonrotating damping cn is imposed, the rotation
where ␴ is the relative damping coefficient speed ⍀s that brings stability to the rotating system can be
estimated.
cn The above considerations are based on a simplified model of
␴= 共36兲
2冑km the rotating system. It is clear that models that take into account
additive effects such as gyroscopy and shaft flexibility must be
Consequently, Eq. 共35兲 highlights that the rotating system be- developed 共if necessary兲 to study accurately the effective stability
comes stable for some value of the rotation speed. Henceforth, the of the system.
analysis consists in identifying stabilizing rotation speeds ⍀s for
various values of nonrotating viscous damper cn. 5 Validation of the Model
4.1 Adimensional Study. Equation 共34兲 gives the root loci of The data available in literature on electrodynamic bearings have
the system as a function of the rotation speed ⍀. It is clear that been collected to validate the model presented in this paper. In
they depend on the mechanical parameters of the rotating system Ref. 关6兴, Lembke characterized a homopolar bearing designed for
共m兲, the nonrotating system 共cn兲, and the electromagnetical char- turbomolecular pump applications. A finite element analysis has
acteristics of the bearing 共k, c, and ␻RL兲. In order to generalize the been performed to compute the force generated by the bearing at
presented approach, an adimensional study has been performed a fixed eccentricity of 0.1 mm, along directions parallel and per-
such that the relevant parameters involved in the bearing stability pendicular to the eccentricity. This configuration corresponds to
can be singled out efficiently. Let introduce two new parameters ␣ the formulation given in Eq. 共19兲, making it suitable to validate
and ␦ as the presented model.

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Fig. 11 Comparison of the magnitude and angle of Fz / z0 „left
Fig. 10 Comparison on the forces parallel and perpendicular
and right axes, respectively…. Angle ␪ is the angle of Fz / z0 as
to the eccentricity. „〫… and „䊊… correspond to F¸ and F
, re-
defined in Fig. 4. „䊊… and „䊐… correspond to 円Fz / z0円 and ␪, re-
spectively, and are obtained from Fig. 57 in Ref. †6‡. The solid
spectively, obtained from Figs. 11 and 12 in Ref. †11‡. The lines
lines are obtained through the model „the thick and thin lines
are obtained using the presented model „the solid and dashed
correspond to F¸ and F
, respectively….
lines correspond to 円Fz / z0円 and ␪, respectively….

Using the data presented in Ref. 关6兴, the parameters of the elec- ⬇ 0.15. To validate the model, we collected the values of nonro-
trodynamic bearing are identified as follows: ␻RL corresponds to tating viscous damping used in Ref. 关11兴, and introduced them
the rotating speed ⍀ at which F⬜ reaches its maximum. Likewise, into Eq. 共38兲. The validation analysis was performed as follows:
the viscous damping is identified using the maximum value of F⬜ 共1兲 Set a value for the nonrotating viscous damping cn, i.e., define
on the vertical axis, as given in Eq. 共22兲. The equivalent stiffness ␣. 共2兲 Increase ␤ until the bearing becomes stable, i.e., ⍀s is
k can then be computed as the product c␻RL. The numerical val- identified. 共3兲 Return to step 1 with another value of ␣. We could
ues that have been identified from Lembke’s data are ␻RL = 4 then obtain the stabilizing rotation speeds ⍀s as a function of cn.
⫻ 103 rad/ s and c = 2.7 N s / m, which give a stiffness k = 10.8 The results of the comparison are presented in Fig. 12. Despite
⫻ 103 N / m. The comparison between the plots obtained from some dispersion, the general behavior is comparable. We believe
Lembke’s work and the model presented in Sec. 2.3 is presented that these differences are a consequence of the results obtained at
in Fig. 10. low rotation speeds in Fig. 11.
The correspondence between the plots is encouraging and vali-
dates the quasistatic study described earlier. It can be emphasized 6 Conclusions
that the analysis could have been carried out in a reduced speed A model of electrodynamic bearings is presented in this paper.
range 关0 − ⍀兩F⬜兩max兴, as the computation of 兩F⬜兩max suffices to ob- The model is based on the electromechanical state and output
tain the bearing characteristics 共c, ␻RL, and k兲. This statement is equation of a motional eddy current damper and takes the R-L
particularly relevant for time-consuming analyses 共as 3D finite dynamics into account. The state equations of the eddy currents
element modeling兲. that develop in the conductor are written in a rotating coordinate
Unfortunately, to the authors’ knowledge, the data concerning frame resorting to complex notation. This choice, common to the
the stability of this bearing were not available, which did not field of rotordynamics, is demonstrated to be powerful as it allows
allow further comparison. For that reason, another comparison has one to take the vector nature of the eddy current forces into ac-
been performed using the data presented by Filatov in Ref. 关11兴. count.
The aim of Filatov’s study was also to design a flywheel rotor for The model can be used to study both the quasistatic and the
energy storage applications. In these investigations, he performed dynamic behavior of the bearing. In the quasistatic case, the con-
a quasistatic analysis through finite element modeling. However, ductor is spun at a fixed off-centered position relative to the mag-
the data reported in Ref. 关11兴 are presented as the magnitude and netic field, and the electromagnetic forces are measured as a func-
angle of ratio Fz / z0 according to the rotation speed. Therefore, Eq.
共18兲 is used for the validation of the model. Parameters c and k are
the initial slope and the limit value of 兩Fz / z0兩, respectively.
⬔共Fz / z0兲 is then used for comparison. This angle is referred to as
␪, defined consistently with Fig. 4. The comparison between the
curves obtained from Ref. 关11兴 and the model is presented in Fig.
11. The numerical values that have been identified are k = 5.45
⫻ 105 N / m and c = 900 N s / m, which give an electric pole of the
bearing ␻RL = 605 rad/ s.
Also in this example, the result is encouraging. The main dif-
ference is found in the angle. This difference could be due to the
difficulty in computing the amplitude and the direction of the
force at low rotation speeds from a finite element analysis. The
angle data obtained from Ref. 关11兴 at low rotation speeds
strengthen this assumption, as they do not seem to tend toward
␪ = 90 deg. In Ref. 关11兴, Filatov also reported a stability analysis.
The bearing identified in Fig. 11 is used to realize the suspension
of a m = 68 kg rotor. He computed the values of the nonrotating Fig. 12 Comparison between stabilizing rotation speeds ver-
viscous damping, such that the bearing is stable at predefined sus nonrotating viscous damping. „〫… corresponds to the data
rotation speeds. obtained from Fig. 15 in Ref. †11‡, while the solid line corre-
According to Eq. 共37兲, this configuration corresponds to ␦ sponds to the stabilizing rotation speed obtained from Eq. „38….

061007-8 / Vol. 130, DECEMBER 2008 Transactions of the ASME

tion of the rotation speed. It is shown that the quasistatic enth International Symposium on Magnetic Bearings, ETH Zurich, Switzer-
land, Aug. 23–25, pp. 141–146.
characterization alone is not adequate to model the behavior of the 关9兴 Filatov, A., and Maslen, E. H., 2001, “Passive Magnetic Bearing for Flywheel
bearing in dynamic operating conditions. Energy Storage Systems,” IEEE Trans. Magn., 37, pp. 3913–3924.
The implications of the bearing characteristics for rotordynam- 关10兴 Filatov, A., 2002, “Null-E Magnetic Bearings,” Ph.D. thesis, University of
ics issues are studied in the case of a Jeffcott rotor. The analysis of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA.
the root loci according to the rotation speed has been performed to 关11兴 Filatov, A., 2006, “Flywheel Energy Storage System With Homopolar Elec-
trodynamic Magnetic Bearing,” Proceedings of the Tenth International Sym-
evidence dynamic instabilities. It is shown that the rotor on elec- posium on Magnetic Bearings, Martigny, Switzerland, Aug. 21–23.
trodynamic bearings is unconditionally unstable if used alone. 关12兴 Moser, R., Regamey, Y.-J., Sandtner, J., and Bleuler, H., 2002, “Passive Dia-
Hence, external nonrotating damping has been introduced to study magnetic Levitation for Flywheels,” Proceedings of the Eighth International
the conditions that are needed to stabilize the system. An adimen- Symposium of Magnetic Bearings, Mito, Japan, Aug. 26–28, pp. 599–603.
关13兴 Sandtner, J., and Bleuler, H., 2004, “Electrodynamic Passive Magnetic Bear-
sional analysis has been developed to generalize the results.
ing With Planar Halbach Arrays,” Proceedings of the Ninth International Sym-
Data available in literature have been used to validate the model posium on Magnetic Bearings, Lexington, KY, Aug. 3–6.
for the quasistatic characterization of a bearing and the dynamic 关14兴 Sandtner, J., and Bleuler, H., 2006, “Passive Electrodynamic Magnetic Thrust

Downloaded from http://asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/vibrationacoustics/article-pdf/130/6/061007/5830321/061007_1.pdf by Brno Univ of Technology user on 09 March 2023

stability of a rotor. The comparisons were convincing, although Bearing Especially Designed for Constant Speed Applications,” Proceedings
some dispersion were found on the stability results. of the Tenth International Symposium on Magnetic Bearings, Martigny, Swit-
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In forthcoming investigations, the stability analysis will be ex- 关15兴 Sodano, H. A., Bae, J.-S., Inman, D. J., and Belvin, W. K., 2006, “Improved
tended to electrodynamic bearings stabilized with eddy currents Concept and Model of Eddy Current Damper,” ASME J. Vibr. Acoust., 128,
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Circular Magnetic Flux and a Conductor of Arbitrary Shape. Part I: Derivation
of the Damping Coefficients,” ASME J. Dyn. Syst., Meas., Control, 106, pp.
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Journal of Vibration and Acoustics DECEMBER 2008, Vol. 130 / 061007-9