Analytical method for levitation force calculation of radial HTS magnetic bearings

Abstract

Introducing high-temperature superconductors (HTS) and their outstanding properties stimulates scientists and engineers in various fields to modernise the products with this new technology. Electric power industry also was affected by this finding in different branches including bearings. The idea of HTS bearings was rapidly developed due to its two main features, i.e. self-stability and contactless operation which leads to save remarkable amount of energy. However, a successful implementation of HTS bearing undoubtedly requires an accurate modelling in the beginning. The contribution of this study is an analytical method for simulating the electromagnetic behaviour of a radial HTS magnetic bearing. The governing non-linear system of partial differential equations in the HTS bulks deduced from the H-formulation along with the E–J power law and is efficiently solved using variational iteration method (VIM). The validity of VIM is ascertained by comparing the results with numerical two-dimensional axisymmetric finite-element method simulations.