Optimum Design of Integrated Magnetic Bearing Using Multiple HTS Bulk Units

Magnetic bearings composed of multiple basic cubic superconducting bulks were investigated. This paper aimed to integrate multiple basic cubic bulks with different performance characteristics and to control the magnetic field properties through design of their arrangement. If this magnetic field characteristic can be controlled, then the optimum configuration for a magnetic bearing can be deduced. In this paper, we aimed to control magnetic bearings with a plurality of basic unit cubic bulks and to control variations in the magnetic characteristics of the bearing surfaces via the arrangement design. We performed calculations of the optimum arrangement that minimizes the inclination angle of the rotation axis of the floating rotating body by combining the structural arrangement pattern of the bearing surface. We constructed a model with a three-row, three-column square arrangement and calculated the layout pattern via an optimization calculation. The cubic bulk was then constructed with this arrangement pattern, and the inclination of the axis of rotation of the floating body was measured using a laser sensor and compared with the calculation result. In addition, the distance between the bearing surface and floating body and the levitation force were measured. We confirmed that suppressing the inclination of the rotation angle through the optimum arrangement was highly effective, indicating the feasibility of controlling the levitation force.