Modal tilt/translate control and stability of a rigid rotor with gyroscopics on active magnetic bearings

Abstract

Most industrial rotors supported in active magnetic bearings (AMBs) are operated well below the first bending critical speed. Also, they are usually controlled using proportional, integral and derivative controllers, which are set up as modally uncoupled parallel and tilt rotor axes. Gyroscopic effects create mode splitting and a speed-dependent plant. Two AMBs with four axes of control must simultaneously control and stabilize the rotor/AMB system. Various analyses have been published considering this problem for different rotor/AMB configurations. There has not been a fully dimensionless analysis of these rigid rotor AMB systems. This paper will perform this analysis with a modal PD controller in terms of translation mode and tilt mode dimensionless eigenvalues and eigenvectors. The number of independent system parameters is significantly reduced. Dimensionless PD controller gains, the ratio of rotor polar to transverse moments of inertia and a dimensionless speed ratio are used to evaluate a fully general system stability rigid rotor analysis. An objective of this work is to quantify the effects of gyroscopics on rigid rotor AMB systems. These gyroscopic forces reduce the system stability margin. The paper is also intended to help provide a common framework for communication between rotating machinery designers and controls engineers Copyright © 2012 Timothy Dimond et al.