Test and Theory Correlation Study for a Flexible Rotor on Fault-Tolerant Magnetic Bearings

This paper provides a new algorithm and test verification for implementing fault-tolerant operation of magnetically suspended, flexible shaft, rotating machinery. The currents to the magnetic bearing are redistributed in a manner so that the bearing actuator preserves the same linearized magnetic forces after some of its coils experience failure. The algorithm that searches a database for the appropriate failure compensation matrix utilizes a Boolean description of the failure state to quickly locate and download its target. The test results are shown to have good agreement with the system simulation results presented.