Control Investigations of Rotor Supported by AMBs During Severe Foundation Excitations

The study is devoted to numerical and experimental investigations of the dynamic behavior of base excited rotating machines supported by Active Magnetic Bearings (AMBs). In case of strong base motions, the rotor can contact its touchdown bearings (TDBs) which are emergency bearings. The objective is to analyze the effect of the combination of mass unbalance forces, base motion excitations and contact nonlinearities on a rotor-AMB system response. In particular, the capacity of an augmented PID controller to maintain the system stable. FE method was developed to model the on-board rotor-AMB system. An academic scale test rig was used for the experimental investigations. Predicted and measured responses due to impulse excitations applied on the foundations were compared. The capacity of the controller to maintain the system stability is discussed.