IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MAGNETICS, VOL. 48, NO.

11, NOVEMBER 2012 3571

Analysis and Study of a Bearingless AC Motor Type Divided Winding,
Based on a Conventional Squirrel Cage Induction Motor
Valci F. Victor , Filipe O. Quintaes , Jos S. B. Lopes , Luciano dos S. Junior , Alberto S. Lock , and
Andrs O. Salazar
Instituto Federal do Tocantins-IFTOCampus Palmas 77.015-200 Palmas TO Brazil
Instituto Federal do Rio Grande do Norte-IFRNCampus Parnamirim 59015-300 Parnamirim RN Brazil
Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte-UFRN, 59072-970, Natal Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil
This paper shows the analysis and study of a bearingless ac Motor type divided winding for a conventional squirrel cage induction
motor, (IM). The conventional IM is used as a bearingless motor for articial-lift oil proposes, allowing a reduction in maintenance
and operation costs. The goal of this paper is improving electromagnetic forces performance, such as the Lorentz and Maxwell forces,
allowing rotor positioning at the rotation axis. It was used a simulator based on the nite element method for acquiring load results for a
3,75 kW, 380 V, 4-poles, 60 Hz, 1.04 Nm, IM motor. Experimental results show that is possible to use a conventional IM as a bearingless
motor, achieving a 80% efciency. This paper presents simulated and experimental results that demonstrated the operation of the IM
bearingless-type split coil built from a conventional induction motor.
Index TermsElectromagnetic (EM) force, induction motor (IM) bearing, position control, squirrel cage rotor.
I. INTRODUCTION
I
N some industry sectors, such as oil extraction industry, the
common problems of maintenance, reliability, efciency
and longtime life issues in conventional electrical machines are
leading to the use of bearingless motors. Bearingless motors
were projected to solve the reducing volume issue of conven-
tional induction motor (IM) [1]. In these motors, rotor posi-
tioning and torque generation are realized through magnetic
forces provoked by stator current control of the motor [2][4].
So, in this sense, bearingless motors behave as a conventional
IM motors. Stator bearingless motor presents two basic con-
gurations: A rst one, which consists of two separate stator
windings: a torque generation winding and a rotor positioning
winding [5]. Second one consists of only one single winding for
torque generation and rotor positioning as well [6][9].
The main characteristic of a bearingless ac motor, type
divided winding is its similarity to conventional IM. This is
mainly due to stator model, which utilizes the same windings
for rotor speed and rotor positioning control. Thus, building
machine and control system costs are drastically reduced.
Bearingless motor is increasingly used in a number of appli-
cations. Mainly in applications where mechanical bears period-
ical-maintenance lead to a problem, e.g., for vacuum pumps op-
erating at deep profundities and high temperatures and also, for
articial-lift oil pumps, where a free contamination owing uid
is need [10]. In order to verify rotor magnetic eld behavior, it
was developed a simulation tool based on nite elements to sim-
ulate the proposed motor. Simulated 4 poles bearingless motor,
type divided winding has the characteristics show in Table I.
Thus, present work make the analysis of electromagnetic forces
in IM motor, such as Lorentz and Maxwell forces in order to
allow rotor positioning at rotational axis [2], [5].
Manuscript received March 02, 2012; revised April 20, 2012 and May 14,
2012; accepted May 15, 2012. Date of current version October 19, 2012. Cor-
responding author: V. F. Victor (e-mail: vitor@ifto.edu.br).
Color versions of one or more of the gures in this paper are available online
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identier 10.1109/TMAG.2012.2201142
TABLE I
EQUIVALENT CIRCUIT PARAMETERS OF THE
BEARINGLESS MACHINE ELECTRICAL
, , , .
II. MOTOR MODELING
A three phase, four poles, conventional squirrel cage IM, has
its stator winding lodged in adjacent slots. The staggered coils
are connected in series to forma phase group. Every phase group
has two diametric opposite coils, as Fig. 1 shows.
Fig. 1(a) shows stator distribution winding, where there is
a 120 shifting phase angle between each phase group axis.
Fig. 1(b) shows winding current representation for each half a
phase group. As it can be observed in Fig. 1(b) a different cur-
rent (namely ) is owing in each
half a phase group. However, as in a three phase system, each
phase group current has a 120 shifting phase angle also. Thus,
the rst set of coils is a1-b1-c1 and the second one is a2-b2-c2.
Fig. 2 shows an equivalent circuit of a conventional three phase,
IM motor (per phase). Where is stator current and is the
rotor current refer to stator. Others Motor parameters are listed
in Table I. It includes some laboratory measured test parame-
ters as (per phase) equivalent inductances or resistances. For ra-
dial forces calculation of bearingless motor, it was considered:
a) Iron magnetic permeability is much greater than air perme-
ability b) Ferromagnetic material is operating at linear zone (no
saturation effect). c) Rotor position deviation is in axis only.
0018-9464/$31.00 2012 IEEE
3572 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MAGNETICS, VOL. 48, NO. 11, NOVEMBER 2012
Fig. 1. (a) Schematic distribution of stator coils and (b) circuit diagram.
Fig. 2. Equivalent circuit of the machine used.
Then, rotor position deviation is related to x magnetic force by
(1).
(1)
Where the rst term of (1) is the average radial force in
direction which is function of and , see Fig. 1(b). The
second and third termare functions of position and differential
current respectively. They need to be
controlled by pruning the radial position in direction. In [1] it
can nd the model for position in both and axes due to three
phase currents, see (2) and (3).
In these equations , and are differential current in
, and inductances respectively, is air gap length, is the
phase angle between phase and axis; and are external
forces on and axes respectively.
(2)
Fig. 3. Behavior of vectors of force on the rotor with differential currents in a
group of stator coils.
Fig. 4. Radial forces in x and y directions with displacement of the rotor and
coils with rated current.
(3)
Rotor magnetic eld analysis was realized by means of
Maxwell tensor method [1]. Fig. 3 shows magnetic forces
vector composition for current deviation in each phase group.
Magnetic eld vectors can control magnetic force vectors.
Former vectors are modied in order to achieve center rotor
position. Fig. 4 shows instantaneous magnetic forces and
, as a function of differential currents, see (2) and (3).
Finite elements method was used in this simulation. Magnetic
forces were evaluated with a 0,02 mm resolution air gap, for a
4,06 A current per phase winding group.
III. SYSTEM CONFIGURATION
Fig. 5 shows a block diagram of proposed bearingless motor
control system. Bearingless motor receives six command cur-
rents for Motor stator coils. These currents are driven using two
parallel insulated gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs) inverters, as
VICTOR et al.: ANALYSIS AND STUDY OF A BEARINGLESS AC MOTOR TYPE DIVIDED WINDING 3573
Fig. 5. Control system used in the bearingless machine.
Fig. 6. Power converter to drive the bearingless IM.
it is shown in Fig. 6. The six independent current loops are im-
plemented by a digital signal processor (DSP) algorithm.
Current references are given by the combination of torque and
radial force commands [1]. Torque commands are generated by
varying the reference angle in a balanced three-phase system,
then creating the effect of a rotating magnetic eld. Three phase
current references are generated by a look up table.
The radial stabilization is based on two independent con-
trollers acting on orthogonal axes sensing. The radial position
sensors are based on magnetic induction of currents in high fre-
quency and generate a linear response.
IV. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
Fig. 7 plots radial force versus one phase differential-current.
It was obtained for both simulation and experimental results.
Comparing both results, it can observe a 7% difference only
when phase current is larger than 5 A. Then, it is possible to
verify properly the system functioning in a current range. Ex-
perimental results show that motor behavior within the recom-
Fig. 7. Simulated and measured radial forces in the x-rotor centered.
Fig. 8. Controlled stator currents of two phases (0,5 A/Div).
mended operation range, since it does not deviate from its the-
oretical behavior.
Then, proposed motor conversion allows low electromag-
netic power losses and high reliability. Positioning forces are
obtained feeding the bearingless IM with unbalanced phase cur-
rents and the controlling rotor position. Fig. 8 shows and half
a phase group currents. It can be observe a 120 phase differ-
ence among them, as it is expect to.
Fig. 9 shows rotor sensor position of proposed bearingless
motor system. External circle shows the maximum rotor orbit.
3574 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MAGNETICS, VOL. 48, NO. 11, NOVEMBER 2012
Fig. 9. Rotor orbital around the central axis (0,1 mm/div).
TABLE II
SUMMARY OF MAIN CHARACTERISTICS OF THE MOTOR
, , , ,
.
Central point is real time rotor position controlled by propor-
tional derivate (PD) controller, as it is shown in Fig. 5.
Experimental results shows that proposed strategy makes
it possible to obtain the rotor positioning at the shaft rotation
axis control, without touching the lateral limits. Thus, it is
eliminating the mechanical friction between rotating and xed
parts. Table II shows the main characteristics of designed
machine. Nominal power, speed and voltage motor as well as
power losses are also shown in Table II. Accordingly, system
efciency can be calculated as:
(4)
Thus, it presents 80% efciency, similar to a conventional
machine.
V. CONCLUSION
This paper presented the study and analysis of a induction
motor squirrel cage bearingless type showing satisfactory re-
sults. Experimental results show that the radial forces are suf-
cient to control the rotor position on the rotating magnetic eld.
Actually the prototype engine bearingless machine is being ac-
celerated life tests for reliability assessment.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors are grateful to CNPq and CAPES for nancial
support.
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