Study on Fast Starting of Air Bearing Permanent Magnet Motors

The life of the passive air bearings of a permanent magnet motor is affected by the motor starting. The fast starting or short starting time is pursued. This paper studies the possible fast starting algorithms with the condition of keeping peak current same, limited by the IGBT or MOSFET rating value, or RMS current same, limited by the motor phase winding temperature. FOC mode, BLDC 120-degree mode and BLDC 180-degree mode are three typical modes and they are used to start a permanent magnet motor with the passive air bearing. The four different starting procedures were simulated with MATLAB Simulink in order to find out the fastest starting mode.