Electromagnetic design of a magnetic suspension system

Author

Hurley, William G. ; Wölfle, Werner H.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electron. Eng., Univ. Coll. Galway, Ireland

Volume

40

Issue

2

fYear

1997

fDate

5/1/1997 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

124

Lastpage

130

Abstract

Magnetic levitation of a metallic sphere provides a high-impact visual demonstration of many principles in undergraduate educational programs in electrical engineering, e.g., electromagnetic design, compensation of a unstable control system and power amplifier design. This paper deals with the electromagnetic and dynamic analysis of the levitation system and it has design formulae which are derived from first principles. This analysis leads to a plant transfer function which is used to implement a proportional plus derivative (PD) compensation strategy. Issues covered include coil and wire sizing for a given temperature rise. The paper shows that the electromagnet can be optimized for a given sphere. An experimental system is described which levitates a 6 cm, 0.8 kg sphere

Keywords

compensation; control engineering education; control system synthesis; design engineering; electrical engineering education; electromagnets; magnetic levitation; student experiments; two-term control; 0.8 kg; 6 cm; PD compensation strategy; coil sizing; design formulae; electrical engineering; electromagnetic design; magnetic levitation; magnetic suspension system; plant transfer function; power amplifier design; temperature rise; undergraduate educational programs; unstable control system compensation; visual demonstration; wire sizing; Coils; Control systems; Educational programs; Electrical engineering; Electromagnetic analysis; High power amplifiers; Magnetic analysis; Magnetic levitation; Transfer functions; Wire;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Education, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9359

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/13.572325

Filename

572325