Comprehensive comparison of different structures of passive permanent magnet bearings
Here, different feasible configurations of passive permanent magnet bearings (PMBs) are presented and compared with each other. In these configurations, stiffness is improved by adding iron cores and air intervals between magnets. Bearings with opposite magnetisation stacking (standard) and rotating magnetisation stacking (Halbach) are studied here. A two-dimensional planner model is used to calculate the magnetic field and stiffness. The optimisation will be performed for obtaining maximum stiffness per magnet volume ratio. The results show that standard stacking with radially magnetised PMs and having back iron and air intervals between magnets is the most optimum structure. For larger dimensions of magnets, other structures will be useful too.