Basic Characteristics and Design of a Novel Hybrid Magnetic Bearing for Wind Turbines

This paper proposes a five-degree-of-freedom (5-DOF) hybrid magnetic bearing (HMB) for direct-drive wind turbines, which can realize suspension in the 4-DOF radial and 1-DOF axial directions. Only two sets of radial control windings are employed in the proposed HMB because only one set of radial control windings can achieve the 2-DOF suspension in the radial direction. Unlike the traditional active thrust magnetic bearings, this paper uses a cylindrical rotor core without a large thrust disc in the novel HMB. The numbers of the controller, power amplifier and system volume can be reduced in the magnetic suspension system. This paper also presents the structure and basic characteristics of the proposed magnetic bearing. A precision equivalent magnetic circuit analysis of the permanent magnet ring and control magnetic field is conducted in this study, in consideration of the non-uniform distribution of magnetic density. Accordingly, the mathematical models, including the suspension force expression, are derived based on the accurate equivalent magnetic circuit. The basic principle of the structure parameter design is presented, based on the given key parameters. The accuracy of the analytical method is further validated by 3D finite element analysis.