Modeling and Analysis of Radial Levitation and Axial Reluctance Force for Four Degree of Freedom Bearingless Switched Reluctance Motor

For traditional 12/8 bearingless switched reluctance motors (BSRMs), the coupling between torque and levitation increases the complexity of control. For the turbomachinery application, 2 degrees of freedom (DOF) BSRMs stabilized by extra 3-DOF active magnetic bearings are required. In this article, an improved BSRM with 4 rotor poles and 12 stator poles is proposed to realize 4-DOF radial levitation, and the torque dead zone is compensated because that two rotors and these poles are assemble with 15 mechanical degree shifted. The decoupling of torque and radial levitation is realized simultaneously. Moreover, the operation principle of axial reluctance force is analyzed for passive levitation in the axial direction. Various experiments were completed to verify the performance of the proposed BSRM, and the prototype achieved stable levitation of the rotor in 10 000 r/min.