Technical design and principle test of active magnetic bearings for the turbine compressor of HTR-10GT

Abstract

The 10MW high temperature gas-cooled test reactor coupled with gas-turbine circle (HTR-10GT) has been carried out by the Institute of Nuclear and New Energy Technology (INET) of Tsinghua University in China since year 2002. In the power convention unit (PCU) of the HTR-10GT, the contact-free and no-lubricating active magnetic bearings (AMB) are adopted to support the vertical high-speed turbine machine shaft, because of their numerous advantages over the conventional oil mechanical bearings under the special reactor operating conditions. Based on the previous studies and small tests of the AMBs, the final engineering design of the AMBs for the HTR-10GT turbine compressor rotor has been finished recently. This paper firstly introduces the design principle and technical futures of the AMBs. Then the main structure, as well as the key dimensions and parameters of the different AMB components are illustrated in detail. Besides, the rotor dynamic analysis is conducted to provide the mathematic model for the unbalance attenuation with high performance control system design in order to smoothly pass across the first two bending critical speeds before reaching the rated speed of 15,000rpm. Furthermore, a small AMB flexible test system in compliance with the dynamic similarity principle of the helium turbine compressor rotor of the HTR-10GT, has been set up to validate the advanced control algorithms and accumulate design and operation experiences for the next full scale experiment in the near future.