Influence of Metal Rubber Ring on the Dynamics of the Active Magnetic Bearing System for Optimal Performance

Abstract

A new trend in control of vibration levels of flexible, lightweight rotor designs is developed. By adding Metal Rubber Ring (MRR), the flexibility of the bearing system beyond the ordinary Active Magnetic Bearing (AMB) system is increased. As a result, effective stiffness and damping properties of the bearing are altered in a manner that can increase the modal damp and help restrain the vibrations. Rotor stability at critical frequencies places specific constraints on the equivalent stiffness and damping parameters of the bearing. An iterative design process comprising aspect of modelling, analysis and optimization is developed to avoid instability while selecting the optimum MRR parameters. The MRR parameters are specified so that the system experiences the first two bending critical frequencies occurring below 400 Hz.