Control of an Axially Levitated Rotating Motor.

In this paper, an axially levitated rotating motor is proposed. It is intended for a disc-type fiat motor so that it has both rotation and axial positioning functions. The rotational control is achieved using a rotating magnetic flux in the stator, while the axial air gap is controlled by changing the amplitude of the rotating magnetic flUX. Three types of disc motors are analyzed theoretically: PM synchronous, induction and reluctance. To confirm the proposed technique, a simple experimental model was setup and tested. The experimental results confirm the validity of the proposed technique that is, the PM motor rotates at up to 6 900rpm, the IM motor rotates at up to 3 835rpm and the reluctance motor rotates at up to 5 100rpm. The axial gap is also controlled by changing the amplitude of the rotating magnetic flux.