Design of a controller for a hybrid bearing system

Most large turbomachinery use fluid film journal bearings to support the rotor, limit vibrations, and to control potential instabilities. More recently, an alternate bearing technology has come into commercial use: active magnetic bearings. These bearings offer a number of advantages, particularly because they can provide very favorable dynamic properties, useful in managing rotor stability. To capitalize on the advantages of both bearing designs, we propose to explore the combination of both bearings into a single integrated bearing design, where the superior load capacity of journal bearings acts in concert with the controllability characteristics of active magnetic bearings to counteract the instability mechanisms of fluid film journal bearings.