Design and control of a high-speed switched reluctance machine with conical magnetic bearings for aircraft application

High-speed and high-power-density drives are attracting much interest in today´s industry. This study presents the design, analysis and control of a high-speed switched reluctance machine (SRM) with conical magnetic bearings for aircraft application. The electromagnetic design and performance analysis of the SRM using finite element and indirect field-circuit coupling are presented. After that, the details of modelling and controller design procedures for the conical magnetic bearings-rotor system based on a voltage-controlled model without feedback loop are proposed. Based on the proposed model and controller, the different performances for the conical magnetic bearings-rotor system at start-up, floating, following and load perturbation operations are predicted. Finally, an experimental setup for the high-speed SRM with conical magnetic bearings system is built. The experimental results for the SRM at motoring, and the characteristics for the magnetic bearings-rotor system at start-up, floating, following and load perturbation operations are given to verify the theoretical analysis and simulation.