Identification of dynamic parameters of active magnetic bearings in a flexible rotor system considering residual unbalances

Abstract Active magnetic bearings (AMBs) support rotors using electromagnetic forces rather than mechanical forces. It is necessary to identify the AMB force coefficients (equivalent stiffness and damping) since they play key roles in the rotordynamic analysis. The identification is usually performed by analyzing the unbalance response. However, the presence of unknown residual unbalances reduces the identification accuracy and a rigid rotor model is only valid when the rotating speed is far below the first bending critical speed. Therefore, this paper proposes an identification algorithm to estimate the stiffness and damping parameters for a flexible rotor AMB system in the presence of unknown residual unbalances by using two independent unbalance response data sets. The proposed algorithm is first evaluated by numerical calculation for accuracy and then applied experimentally in the identification of a flexible rotor AMB system operating at speeds ranging from 3,000 rpm (50 Hz) to 30,000 rpm (500 Hz). The identification results are verified in the end.