Building a Bench with Magnetic Bearings for Study of Rotor Dynamics

Along with the rise of great technological advancements came new products and processes, demanding an increase in quality and production growth. This work presents a study on Active Magnetic Bearings, a no contact, friction-free device that supports a rotor through magnetic forces. Thus, a few of its advantages include a low maintenance cost and the possibility of working at high rotation speeds. A disadvantage is the need for a control loop. Therefore, a PID controller is implemented on an embedded electronic FPGA-based platform reconfigurable for levitation, stabilization and the analysis of the rotor's dynamic behavior. To achieve the proposed objective, a prototype of the system was developed to carry out measurements and experimental analyses and to observe the advantages and disadvantages offered by the system. The results obtained show that the rotor maintains itself within the acceptable displacement zone around the bearings' geometric center. Therefore, the controller managed to stabilize the system so its dynamic behavior does not exceed the limit established in this project.