Development of an axial suspended AMB experimental bench for load and disturbance tests

This paper provides the development of an axial suspended active magnetic bearing (AMB) experimental bench for load and disturbance tests. This test bench must be capable of levitating a 2 kg steel disc at a stable working distance of 3 mm and a maximum attraction distance of 6 mm. The suspension is accomplished by two electromagnets producing upward and downward attraction forces to support the steel disc. An inductive sensor measures the position of the steel disc and relays this to a PC based controller board (dSPACE® controller). The control system uses this information to regulate the electromagnetic force on the steel disc. The intent is to construct this system using relatively low-cost, low-precision components, and still be able to stably levitate the 2 kg steel disc with high precision. The dSPACE® software (ControlDesk®) was used for data acquisition. In this paper, an overview of the system design is presented, followed by the axial AMB model design, inductive sensor design, actuating unit design and controller development and implementation. The paper concludes with results obtained from the dSPACE® controller and evaluation of the axial suspended AMB experimental bench with load and disturbance tests.