Automated Assistance for Designing Active Magnetic Bearings

MagBear12 is a computer code (see figure) that assists in the design of radial, heteropolar active magnetic bearings (AMBs). MagBear12 was developed to help in designing the system described in "Advanced Active-Magnetic-Bearing Thrust-Measurement System" (SSC- 00177-1), which appears in NASA Tech Briefs, Vol. 32, No. 9 (September 2008), p. 61. (See the Mechanics/Machinery section in the accompanying issue of NASA Tech Briefs). Beyond this initial application, MagBear12 is expected to be useful for designing AMBs for a variety of rotating machinery. This program incorporates design rules and governing equations that are also implemented in other, proprietary design software used by AMB manufacturers. In addition, this program incorporates an advanced unpublished fringing-magnetic- field model that increases accuracy beyond that offered by the other AMB-design software.