2009 IEEE/ASME International Conference on Advanced Intelligent Mechatronics

Suntec Convention and Exhibition Center

Singapore, July 14-17, 2009

Axial Position and Speed Vector Control of the Inset Permanent

Magnet Axial Gap Type Self Bearing Motor
Quang Dich, Nguyen, Student Member, IEEE and Satoshi Ueno, Member, IEEE

Abstract— Magnetic bearing motors have many advantages

such as no friction loss, no abrasion, lubrication-free quality,
very high speed and so forth. However, they are not widely used
due to their high cost, complex control and large size. In order to
solve these problems, a self-bearing motor is a reasonable trend
in current researches. This paper will introduce an inset
permanent magnet type axial gap self bearing motor, which is
an electrical combination of an axial thrust bearing and an axial Fig. 1. Structure of conventional magnetic bearing motor.
flux motor, as well as the method of controlling axial position
and rotating speed of the motor. First, the axial force and the
motoring torque are analyzed theoretically and then the control
method is derived. In order to confirm the proposed technique,
a motor has been made and tested. The experimental results
confirm that the motor works stably with the proposed vector
control, and the rotating torque and the axial force can be
controlled independently.
Fig.2. Structure of radial combined magnetic bearing motor
I. INTRODUCTION

R ecently, active magnetic bearing motors have been

designed to overcome the deficiencies of conventional
mechanical bearing motors. They show the abilities to work
in vacuum with no lubrication and no contamination, or to run
at high speed, and to shape novel rotor dynamics. Therefore,
they are very valuable machines with a number of novel
features, and with a vast range of diverse applications [1].
The conventional magnetic bearing-motor usually has
structures like a rotary motor installed between two radial
magnetic bearings or mechanical combination of rotary motor
and radial magnetic bearing as shown in Figs. 1 and 2, in
which, two radial magnetic bearings create levitation force
for rotor, whilst an axial magnetic bearing produces thrust
force to keep the rotor in right axial position to the stator.
However, these types of magnetic bearing are of large size,
heavy weight and complex control, which causes problems in
some applications that have limit space [2],[3]. For this
reason, simpler and smaller construction and less complex
control system are desirable.
The Earnshaw’s theorem shows that a rotor can be
supported stably by static magnetic field when being
controlled by one axis actively. Therefore, if a stator has
capabilities of producing a rotating torque and controlling
Manuscript received February 31, 2009. This work was supported in part
from the Japanese Ministry of Education, Science and Culture.
The authors are with the Control Engineering Laboratory, Department of
Mechanical Engineering, Ritsumeikan University, 1-1-1 Nojihigashi,
Kusatsu, Shiga, Japan (e-mail: gr046070@se.ritsumei.ac.jp)
Publisher Item Identifier
Fig.3. Structure of axial gap self bearing motor
one axis actively, the non-contact levitation can be realized in
small and simple structure. Based on this feature, an axial gap
self bearing motor (AGBM) has been introduced as in Fig. 3.
It is an electrical combination of an axial flux motor and an
axial magnetic bearing, which is simpler in structure and
control than the conventional magnetic bearing-motor since
hardware components can be reduced [4]. This type of motor
can be realized as induction (IM) [5], or permanent magnet
(PM) motor [6],[7]. The PM type motor is specially paid
attention, due to its high power factor, high efficiency and
easy to produce. The control method for them was developed
under the vector control principle, where the direct axis
current id is used for controlling the axial force and the
quadrate axis current iq is used for controlling the rotating
torque. The result showed that the proposed motor has
capability of producing torque and axial force simultaneously.
However, most of researches were dealt with only the
surface-mount non-salient PM rotor, where the inductances
along both d and q axis are equal; whereas the inset type PM
motor, with capability of having high speed and suspension
force is not much mentioned. The difficulty with the inset
salient pole rotor has been the variation in the d and q axis
inductances, which strong affects to the quality of axial

978-1-4244-2853-3/09/$25.00 ©2009 IEEE 130

position and speed control due to the current control loops are oriented reference frame or so-called d, q coordinates as
not independent. indicated in Fig. 5, where d axis is aligned with the axis of
In this paper, the closed loop vector control method for rotor flux vector and q axis is in orthogonal direction with d
axial position and speed is presented for inset salient pole PM axis. The axes u, v and w indicate the direction of the flux
motor with two poles. In which the compensational method produced by corresponding phase windings. The phase
for reference currents based on the difference between d and difference between the u axis and d axis is angular position θ
q axis inductances is also proposed. In order to confirm the of rotor or rotor flux vector.
presented technique, an experimental setup has been made Since rotor is salient type, hence the self phase inductance
and test. of the stator is dependent on rotor angular position, which
means d axis inductance is different from q axis inductance.
II. MATHEMATICAL MODEL Furthermore, the self phase inductance is a function of the air
Figure 4 illustrates the principle structure of an axial gap gap between rotor and stator g. Normally, self phase
self-bearing motor. The radial motions x, y, θx, θy of the rotor inductance is inversely proportional to the air gap, so the d
are constrained by radial magnetic bearings such as the and q axis phase inductance of stator windings may be
repulsive bearing shown. Only rotational motion and approximated by
translation of rotor along z axis are considered. The motor has 3 Lsd′ 0
Lsd = + Lsl
two degrees of freedom. 2 g
(1)
The rotor is a flat disc with permanent magnet (PM) inseted 3 Lsq′ 0
on two faces of disc to create a salient-pole rotor. Two stators, Lsq = + Lsl
2 g
one in each size of rotor, have three-phase windings so as to
generate the rotating magnetic flux in the air gap that in which Lsd′ 0 ,Lsq′ 0 are effective inductances per unit gap in d
produces the motoring torque T1 and T2 to the rotor and and q axis and Lsl is leakage inductance.
generate the attractive force between the rotor and the stators Then, the mathematical model of the AGBM in the d,q
F1 and F2. The total motoring torque T is sum of those torques coordinates can be expressed in the following equations:
and the axial force F is different between two attractive ⎧ disd
forces. ⎪usd = Rs isd + Lsd dt − ωLsq isq
To get mathematical model of AGBM, first, the axial force ⎪
⎪u = R i + L disq + ωL i + ωλ
Fs and motoring torque Ts are calculated for one stator. ⎨ sq s sq sq sd sd m (2)
⎪ dt
Similar to the conventional permanent magnet motor, the
mathematical model of AGBM is also presented in rotor field ⎪λ sd = Lsd isd + λ m
⎪λ = L i
⎩ sq sq sq

with λm is the flux linkage caused by rotor magnetic field. For

simplicity, the permanent magnet of rotor is replaced by an
equivalent winding with current if and inductance of rotor
winding Lf. It can be expressed only in d axis as follows
λ f = λ fd = i f L f + Lmisd (3)
′ 0
3 Lsd
with L f = + L fl (4)
2 g
and mutual inductance Lm = 3Lsd′ 0 / 2 g (5)
From (1) to (3), the magnetic energy in the motor is
calculated as
W = (λ f i f + λsd isd + λsqisq ) / 2 (6)
Therefore, the attractive force for a stator is received by
derivative of magnetic energy with air gap
∂W 3Lsd ′ 0 ′ 0 2
2 3Lsq
Fig. 4. The principle structure of the axial gap self bearing motor. Fs = −
∂g
=
4g2
i (
sd + i f )
+
4g2
isq (7)

and motoring torque for a stator is received by using Fleming

left hand rule
Ts = P( −λsd isq + λsqisd )
′ 0
3PLsd ′ 0 − Lsq
3P ( Lsd ′ 0) (8)
= i f isq + isd isq
2g 2g
Fig.5. Coordinates with P is number of pole pairs

131
 From (8) we can see that output torque is a combination of T = 2 K T iq (16)
excitation torque and reluctance torque. That means, in every F = 4 K Fd i f id (17)
operation mode, the motor has to produce an additional
torque to compensate the reluctance torque. In the non-salient From (16) and (17), it is obvious that the total torque can be
pole rotor, this reluctance torque can be ignored to make controlled with the quadrate axis current and axial force can
control system become more simply. But in the salient pole be controlled with the direct axis current.
rotor when the reluctance torque can reach the relative high A. Axial displacement control
amplitude, the neglect of this torque component will reduce For simplicity, it is assumed that the radial motion of the
the quality of system, especially in operation mode with axial rotor is restricted by ideal radial bearings. Therefore, the axial
load (id ≠ 0). motion of the rotor is independent from radial motion. The
From (7) and (8) F1 and T1 are calculated by substituting dynamic equation of the axial motion of the rotor is
g = g 0 + z , isd = id 1 and isq = iq1 , and F2 and T2 are F = mz (18)
calculated by substituting g = g 0 − z , isd = id 2 and isq = iq 2 . where m is mass of moving part, and F is axial force shown in
(15). Then by substituting (15) into (18), we receive
Thus, the total axial force F and torque T are given by:
z
F = F 2 − F1 (9) mz = 4 K Fd i f id + {4 K Fd (id2 + i 2f ) + 4 K Fqiq2 } (19)
g0
T = T1 + T 2 (10)
or we can write in short form
here, g0 is axial gap at the equilibrium point and z is the
mz + K z z = K mid (20)
displacement.
with K z = −4 K Fd (i + i ) − 4 K i is stiffness of the motor
2 2 2
For linearization at the equilibrium point (z = 0) we expand d f Fq q

(9) and (10) into Mac Laurin series and take the first order and K m = 4 K Fd i f is force gain. It is easy to realize that Kz is
term, we get negative, which means this system is unstable. To stabilize
z
T = K T ( iq 1 + iq 2 ) + K T ( iq 2 − iq 1 ) the system, the controller with derivative component must be
g0 (11) used. Assume that, the proportional derivative controller
z (PD) is used, the output of the controller will represent the
+ K R ( id 1i q 1 + id 2 i q 2 ) + K R ( id 2 i q 2 − id 1i q 1 )
g0 direct axis reference current, i.e.
F = K Fd {(i
d2 + if ) − (i
2
d1 + if ) } + K (i
2
Fq
2
q2 − iq21 ) +
id = − K p z − K d z (21)
With Kp and Kd is proportional and derivative constant of the
2 K Fd {(id2 + if ) + (i
2
d1 + if )}
2 z
g0
+ 2 K Fq ( iq22 + iq21 )
z
g0 (12)
axial position controller. By substituting (21) into (20), we
get
in which K Fd = 3Lsd′ 0 / 4 g02 and K Fq = 3Lsq′ 0 / 4 g 02 are force mz + K m K d z + ( K z + K m K p ) z = 0 (22)
factors, KT = −3PLsd′ 0i f / 2 g0 and K R = −3 ( Lsd′ 0 − Lsq′ 0 ) / 2 g0 The necessary condition for system becomes stable only
when all constant coefficients of the polynomial function are
are torque factors.
the same sign. Therefore, if Kd > 0, the proportional constant
must be satisfied the condition
III. CONTROL PRINCIPLE
K K (i 2 + i 2 ) + K Fqiq2
The PM motor torque can be controlled effectively by K p > − z = Fd d f (23)
using quadrate axis current, and the axial force can be control Km K Fd i f
by changing the direct axis current, we suppose that to ensure that the system is stable.
iq1 = iq 2 = iq In the actual, there has steady-state error when only PD
controller is used, hence to remove the steady-state error, the
id 1 = id 0 − id (13)
PID controller should be used.
id 2 = id 0 + id
B. Speed control
with id0 is offset current, and the value can be zero or a small
value around zero, so if we choose id 0 = 0 then the total It is supposed that, the axial position can be controlled well,
such that the displacement become very small compared with
torque and axial force are
the gap at equilibrium point. The dynamic equation of
T = 2 K T i q + 2 K R id i q z / g 0 (14)
rotating motion of rotor can be
z
F = 4 K Fd i f id + {4 K Fd (id2 + i 2f ) + 4 K Fqiq2 } (15) T = TL + J ω + Bω (24)
g0 with TL is load moment, J is inertia moment of whole system
In the ideal case, when the displacement is zero, or very and B is damping factor.
small in comparison with air gap at the equilibrium point g0, Obviously, the system is stable, so the design of the speed
the total torque and axial force becomes controller is the same with the procedure used in DC motor.

132
 IV. CONTROL STRUCTURE
The motoring torque of AGBM can be controlled by q-axis
current (iq), while the axial force can be controlled by d-axis
current (id), therefore, the control scheme proposed for the
AGMB drive is shown in Fig. 6.
The axial displacement from the equilibrium point along the
z-axis, z, can be detected by the gap sensor. The detected axial
position is compared with axial position command zref, then
the error is inserted in the axial position controller Rz. The
output of axial position controller is used for calculating d-axis
reference current by compensation procedure from (15).
Position command zref is always set to zero to make sure the
rotor is right in the midpoint between the two stators. The
d-axis reference currents for the two stator windings id1ref and
id2ref can be generated by using the offset current id0
subtracting and adding idref respectively. The value of the
offset current can be zero or a small value around zero.
The rotor speed detected from encoder is compared with
reference speed, then the difference is input of speed
controller Rω. The output of speed controller is used for
calculating the q-axis reference current by using (14), the
q-axis reference currents for the two stator windings are same
with this current.
The motor currents in the two-phase stator reference frame
α,β are calculated by the measurement of two actual phase
currents. Therefore, the d,q components are obtained using the
rotor position from encoder. The quadrate components are
controlled to the reference value which is given by the speed
controller, while the direct components are controlled to the
reference value which is given by the axial position controller.
The outputs of the current controllers, representing the
voltage references, are afterward directed to the motor using
the Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) technique, once an
inverse transformation from the rotating to the three phase
stator reference frame has been performed. All controllers are
standard PI except axial position controller (PID).
V. IMPLEMENTATION AND RESULTS
A. Control hardware
In order to confirm the proposed control method for PM
Fig. 6. The control scheme of the axial gap self bearing motor.
133
type AGBM, an experimental setup was set up which is shown
schematically in Fig. 7. The rotor disc, as shown in Fig. 8, has
a diameter of 50 mm and two neodymium iron magnets with
the thickness of 1mm for each side are mounted to its surfaces
to create one pole pair. For experimental simplicity, the rotor
is supported by two radial ball bearings in order to restrict the
radial motion.
The stator, as shown in Fig. 9, has a diameter of core 50 mm
and six concentrated wound poles, each with 200 coil turns.
The stators can slide on linear guide to ensure the same desired
air gap between rotor and two stators. A DC generator (Sanyo
T402) is installed to give the load torque. In order to measure
the rotor angle and the axial position, a rotary encoder (Copal
RE30D) and an eddy-current-type displacement sensor
(Sentec HA-101S) are installed, respectively.
The control hardware of AGBM drive is based on a
dSpace1104 board dedicated to control of electrical drives,
which includes PWM units, general purpose input/output units
(8 ADC and 8 DAC) and encoder interface. The DSP reads the
displacement signal from the displacement sensor via an A/D
converter, and the rotor angle position and speed from the
encoder via an encoder interface. Two motor phase currents
are sensed, rescaled, and converted to digital values via an
A/D converter. Then, the dSpace1104 calculates reference
currents using the rotation control and axial position control
algorithms and send its commands to three phase inverter
board. The AGBM is supplied by two three phase PWM
inverters with switching frequency of 20 kHz.
B. Experiment results
First, parameter estimation is carried out. The phase
resistor is 2.6Ω. The static phase inductances are measured by
measuring frequency response of the voltage versus current
Fig. 7. Schematic of the experiment setup.
Fig. 8. Rotor of AGBM.
Fig. 9. Stator of AGBM
of the stator coil and are shown in Fig. 11. From that, we
have Lsq0 ′ = 9.6 × 10−6 Hm , ′ = 8.2 × 10−6 Hm and
Lsd0
Lsl = 6 × 10−3 H . The air gap between the stator and the rotor
is adjusted to 1.7 mm. Rotor mass is 0.235 kg and rotor inertia
is 0.000086 kgm2. Amplitude of the flux induced by the
permanent magnets of the rotor in the stator phases can be
estimated by measuring no load-voltage of AGBM in
generator mode, shown in Fig. 12, we have λm = 0.0126Wb .
Fig.13 shows the response of axial displacement at 0 rpm,
first, the displacement is set to 0.32 mm, at time of 0.45 s, the
axial position controller starts to work. In transient state, the
maximum error is 0.05 mm, that is considerable smaller than
the air gap length at the equilibrium point (g0 =1.7mm) and
the settling time is about 0.05 s. After that, the displacement is
almost zero in steady state.

Fig. 14. Response of displacement and speed at start

Fig. 11. Static phase inductances of AGBM.

Fig. 12. Back-EMF of AGBM.

Fig. 13. Response of displacement at zero speed. Fig. 15. Displacement at different speed

134
 Fig. 14 shows the response of displacement and speed
when motor starts to work. The displacement jumps
immediately to zero and the rotor speed reach to 1500 rpm
after 0.5s. Obviously, the displacement controller and speed
controller work independently with each other.
Fig. 15 shows the displacement at different speed, it can
be seen that at the higher speed, there is a little vibration in the
displacement, but the maximum error at 1500 rpm is about
0.025mm, that is far smaller than the air gap. One of the
reasons causes this vibration is mechanical problem. Other
come from effect of the quadrate axis current.
Fig. 16 illustrates the change of direct axis current id,
quadrate axis current iq and displacement when the motor
speed changes from 1000 rpm to 1500 rpm and vice versa.
Fig. 17 represents the relation between axial force and
direct axis current, its linear shape confirm the direct
proportion. At high axial load, the actual force is lower than
the theory one because of increasing the demagnetization
process. The reducing of magnetic flux will cause decline in
axial force.
Fig. 18 shows the relation between torque and quadrate
axis current, the theory excitation torque is calculated from
(16) is smaller than actual torque, that means the motor
produces an extra reluctance torque.

VI. CONCLUSION
The axial gap self bearing motor was fabricated with inset
PM type rotor and the vector control was implemented. The
results confirm that the motor can produce rotating torque and
Fig. 16. Response of currents and displacement when rotor speed was
changed axial force simultaneously and there is very little interference
between the axial position control and speed control in all
operating mode. The proposed control method can be used
for all kind of PM type axial gap self bearing motor.

REFERENCES
[1] M. Dussaux, “The industrial application of the active magnetic bearing
technology,” in Proc. 2nd Int. Symp. Magnetic Bearings, Tokyo, Japan,
July 12–14, 1990.
[2] A. Chiba, T. Deido, T. Fukao and M. A. Rahman. “An analysis of
bearingless AC motors”, IEEE Trans. Energy Conversion, vol. 9, pp.
61-67, Mar. 1994.
[3] Y. Okada, K. Dejima and T. Ohishi, “Analysis and comparison of PM
synchronous motor and induction motor type magnetic bearing”, IEEE
Fig. 17. Actual and calculated axial force Trans. Industry Applications, vol. 32, pp. 1047-1053, Sept./Oct. 1995.
[4] Y. Okada, S. Ueno, T. Ohishi, T. Yamane and C. C. Tan, “Axial type
self bearing motor for axial flow blood pump”, Int. Society for Artificial
Organs vol. 27, pp. 887-891, 2003.
[5] S. Ueno and Y. Okada, “Vector control of an induction type axial gap
combined motor-bearing”, in Proc. of the IEEE Int. Conf. on Advanced
Intelligent Mechatronics, Sept. 19-23, 1999, Atlanta, USA, pp.
794-799.
[6] S. Ueno and Y. Okada, “Characteristics and control of a bidirectional
axial gap combined motor-bearing”, IEEE Transactions on
mechatronics, Vol. 5, No. 3, Sept. 2000, pp. 310-318.
[7] D. Q. Nguyen and S. Ueno “A study on axial gap self bearing motor
drives”, Proc. of the Int. Symposium on Micro/Nano system technology,
CD Rom, Dec. 2008.
[8] A. Chiba, et. al., Magnetic Bearings and Bearingless Drives, 1st edition,
Elsevier, Great Britain, 2005.
Fig. 18. Actual and theory excitation torque

135