Development of a compact, light weight magnetic bearing

A novel magnetic bearing design was created that uses permanent magnets to generate the primary magnetic field and attraction electromagnets for stabilization and control. This approach uses a geometrically efficient arrangement with a combination of axially flowing permanent magnet field and a circumferentially flowing electromagnetic field. This design was compared analytically with other types of magnetic bearing designs. The design comparison showed the new design to be 50% lighter weight and 50% lower in power consumption than all electromagnetic designs of equivalent performance. A demonstration model of this new approach was built and tested for performance at low shaft speeds. This test model successfully demonstrated the feasibility of this new approach.