Characteristic analysis of rotor dynamics and experiments of active magnetic bearing for HTR-10GT

A 10 MW high-temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTR-10) was constructed by the Institute of Nuclear and New Energy Technology (INET) at Tsinghua University of China. The helium turbine and generator system of 10 MW high-temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTR-10GT) is the second phase for the HTR-10 project. It is to set up a direct helium cycle to replace the current steam cycle. The active magnetic bearing (AMB) instead of ordinary mechanical bearing was chosen to support the rotor in the HTR-10GT. This rotor is vertically mounted to hold the turbine machine, compressors and the power generator together. The rotor's length is 7 m, its weight is about 1500 kg and the rotating speed is 15,000 rpm. The structure of the rotor is so complicated that dynamic analysis of the rotor becomes difficult. One of the challenging problems is to exceed natural frequencies with enough stability and safety during reactor start up, power change and shutdown. The dynamic analysis of the rotor is the base for the design of control system. It is important for the rotor to exceed critical speeds. Some kinds of softwares and methods, such as MSC.Marc, Ansys, and the transfer matrix method (TMM), are compared to fully analyze rotor dynamics characteristic in this paper. The modal analysis has been done for the HTR-10GT rotor. MSC.Marc was finally selected to analyze the vibration mode and the natural frequency of the rotor. The effects of AMB stiffness on the critical speeds of the rotor were studied. The design characteristics of the AMB control system for the HTR-10GT were studied and the related experiment to exceed natural frequencies was introduced. The experimental results demonstrate the system functions and validate the control scheme, which will be used in the HTR-10GT project.