Journal of the Korean Physical Society, Vol. 57, No. 4, October 2010, pp.

907912

Development of a Hybrid Bearing Using Permanent Magnets and

Piezoelectric Actuators
Jung-Ho Park, Young-Bog Ham, So-Nam Yun and Hu-Seung Lee
Environmental and Energy Systems Research Division,
Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials, Daejeon 305-343, Korea
(Received 8 January 2010, in final form 9 July 2010)
In this study, a hybrid magnetic bearing with permanent magnets and piezoelectric actuators
is investigated. First, in this study, a novel concept in which piezoelectric actuators are used to
compensate for low stiffness and damping resulting from the unstable characteristics of a passive
magnetic bearing using only permanent magnets is proposed. Secondly, the permanent magnets are
optimally arranged through an electromagnetic field analysis. Then, the driving amplifier unit and
a prototype radial bearing using the proposed concept are fabricated. Finally, basic characteristics,
such as the results of an impact test and a rotational runout test with constant speed are investigated
and discussed, and experiments using PID control method are conducted.
PACS numbers: 85.70.Rp, 85.50.+k
Keywords: Magnetic bearing, Piezoelectric actuator, Permanent magnet, Electromagnet field analysis, Repulsive force, Passive magnetic bearing
DOI: 10.3938/jkps.57.907

and have sufficient bearing characteristics such as stiffness and damping. However, they are expensive and require complicated control hardware/software, high power
consumption and difficult maintenance. On the other
hand, passive magnetic bearings do not require such
complicated hardware and so on. They can be made
smaller, more efficient and reliable although they have
lower stiffness and lower damping than similarly sized
active magnetic bearings [2,3]. A few studies have been
performed to investigate the weak stiffness and damping
of passive magnetic bearing systems [36]. In this study,
a hybrid bearing with permanent magnets and piezoelectric actuators is investigated as a trial to overcome such
problems of conventional non-contact bearings.

I. INTRODUCTION
In recent years, actively-controlled non-contact-type
bearings, such as magnetic bearings and air bearings,
have been actively investigated in the fields of manufacturing, aerospace and so on, especially, for spindle units
of industrial machinery or hard disk drives and flywheel
energy storage systems. They can operate with near zero
friction and without the use of a lubricant. Non-contact
type bearings have the outstanding advantages of precise
motion, low friction loss, cleanliness without particles,
no need for a lubricant and long life. Non-contact-type
bearings are usually classified into two types, air and
magnetic bearings.
Air bearings can be grouped as either hydrostatic or
hydrodynamic by using wedge effect or squeeze film effect. The disadvantages of air bearings are their relatively lower load-carrying capacity, lower stiffness, and
surface wear at the start and the stop of the rotating rotor caused by the wedge effect. To overcome such weakness, reduced clearance and coating with wear-resistant
material are necessary. Then, this results in a hightolerance requirement and, consequently, increases the
cost of parts machining [1]. In general, air bearings are
suitable for light-load, high-speed applications.
Magnetic bearings can be grouped as either active
or passive. Actively-controlled magnetic bearings using
electromagnets have the ability to support large loads
E-mail:

II. DESIGN AND ANALYSIS

Passive magnetic bearings using only permanent magnets are generally unstable due to the unbalance force,
low stiffness and damping. Hence, special mechanisms
or complicated control methods are needed to improve
performance levels. Thus, active air bearings using the
squeeze film effect by means of an ultrasonic oscillation
with piezoelectric or magnetostrictive actuators have
been investigated [7,8]. However, there are some disadvantages such as limited gap size of a few m and low
stiffness.
To overcome such problems of conventional noncontact bearings, in this study, we investigated a hybrid

jhpark@kimm.re.kr; Fax: +82-42-868-7335

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Journal of the Korean Physical Society, Vol. 57, No. 4, October 2010

Fig. 1. (Color online) Configuration of the proposed hybrid

bearing.

magnet bearing using permanent magnets and piezoelectric actuators. Piezoelectric actuators, which have
many advantages, such as high generation force, fast frequency response, low energy consumption and no electrical noise, have been widely used in recent years in many
applications that require precise positioning control.
Figure 1 shows the basic principle and the construction
of the proposed hybrid magnet bearing [9]. Permanent
magnets are embedded in the rotor and the stator, respectively. The rotor position is measured by using displacement sensors for dynamic runout and a dial indicator for static runout. The permanent magnets employed
in the stator can be moved in the X-Y direction by using
the piezoelectric actuators. The axis of rotation of the
rotor is floated and oriented to the center by means of
the repulsive force of the permanent magnets, although
this state is very unstable due to the unbalanced force.
The piezoelectric actuators attached to the permanent
magnets of the stator in X-Y direction controls the rotors position by moving the magnets to improve the radial vibration generated due to the critical speed and to
eliminate the deviation from the center caused by the unbalanced force. In this study, only a radial-type bearing
is considered.
An electromagnetic field analysis using a FEM (finite
element method) is performed to optimize the structure
of the proposed hybrid magnetic bearing, especially, the
magnet arrangement. One of the design goals is to decrease as much as possible the unbalanced force caused
by the permanent magnets. In this study, the FEM
is used to calculate the magnetic field and the force.
Maxwell, a commercial code was employed for the calculation.
Figure 2 shows one of the analysis results. Three permanent magnets are arranged in the rotor. The used
magnet is NdFe3 O. Four permanent magnets are arranged in the stator. Figures 2(a) and (b) show the
magnetic flux line and flux density, respectively. Figure
2(c) shows the obtained unbalanced force in the X-Y directions when the rotor is rotated from 0 to 180 . From
the results, it is ascertained that the maximum unbal-

Fig. 2. (Color online) Electromagnetic analysis results

(Permanent magnet arrangement: Rotor 3, Stator 4), (a)
Flux line, (b) Flux density, (c) Calculated unbalance of the
force.

anced force is about 500 N because of the asymmetrical

structure of the permanent magnets between the rotor
and the stator. Here, the unbalanced force presents the
calculated force when the length of axis is 1 m. The maximum force of the employed piezoelectric actuators was
100 N and could not control the generated unbalanced
force.
Figure 3 shows the analysis results when the magnet

Development of a Hybrid Bearing Using Permanent Magnets and Piezoelectric Actuators Jung-Ho Park et al.

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Fig. 3. (Color online) Electromagnetic analysis results using a ring-type permanent magnet in the rotor.
Fig. 5. (Color online) Fabricated prototype radial bearing.

Fig. 4. (Color online) Electromagnetic analysis results

with 50 m-shifted rotor in the X direction.

employed in the rotor is a ring-type magnet without segments. From the results, it is ascertained that the maximum unbalanced force is about 0.3 N and that the arrangement of the magnets is a significant factor for the
proposed hybrid bearings. Figure 4 shows the results
with the rotor shifted 50 m in the X direction. The
average unbalanced force in the X direction is less than
1 N. Therefore, the optimal design of permanent magnet arrangement is confirmed to improve the unbalanced
characteristics, which results in a decreased force that
can be controlled by using the piezoelectric actuator. A
ring-type permanent magnet in the rotor was considered
to design a prototype radial bearing.

III. FABRICATION AND EXPERIMENT

Figure 5 shows a photocopy of the fabricated prototype radial bearing. The shaft diameter is 30 mm, and
the gap between the shaft and the back-up bearing is

Fig. 6. (Color online) Fabricated amplifiers for driving the

two piezoelectric actuators.

0.3 mm. Therefore, the piezoelectric actuators can control the displacement of 0.2 mm in the X-Y directions,
respectively. The feedback signal for the rotor position
to controller was measured by using two capacitive-type
displacement sensors (Lion Precision, C23-B type). Two
amplified piezoelectric actuators (CEDRAT, APA60SM,
80 m@150 V, 110 N, 2.8 kHz) were used to control the
magnet position. Figure 6 shows the amplifiers fabricated to drive the two piezoelectric actuators. The signals to move the actuators through piezoelectric amplifiers had voltage of up to 130 V.
A schematic of experimental apparatus for the prototype hybrid bearing is shown in Fig. 7. The shaft is
floated by magnet coupling and is rotated by using an
AC 3-pole motor of 60 W. The upper side of the rotating axis is supported by the proposed hybrid bearing,
and lower side is supported by a hydrostatic bearing.
By using the proposed mechanism, the number of magnets could be reduced compared with conventional electromagnetic bearings, which resulted in miniaturization

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Journal of the Korean Physical Society, Vol. 57, No. 4, October 2010

Fig. 7. (Color online) 3D cross-sectional view of the designed prototype bearing.

Fig. 10. Impact test result for the fabricated prototype
bearing.

Fig. 8. (Color online) Constructed experimental apparatus.

Fig. 11. FFT analysis using the impact test result.

Fig. 9. (Color online) Calibration results for the capacitive

displacement sensor.

and lightweight. Figure 8 shows the experimental apparatus constructed to investigate the basic characteristics
of the proposed hybrid bearing.

First, calibration of the capacitive displacement sensor was performed because of the non-linearity caused
by the curvature of the rotors shape. The results are
shown in Fig. 9. It can be confirmed that the results
show nearly linear characteristics although the measured
target has a curved shape. Figures 10 and 11 present the
rotor displacement based on an impact test and a FFT
analysis result. The rotor displacement is measured in
Y-direction with levitation by the hydrostatic bearing
and permanent magnets. The results using FFT analysis showed that resonance frequency of the system was
125 Hz and the critical rotational speed was 7,500 RPM.
The rotors position is measured in the X-Y directions
at a constant rotational speed. For measuring the rotors
position, the ISO 230-7 standard, Geometric accuracy
of axes of rotation, was used for the system. Figure 12
shows methods in order to measure the radial concentricity and the axial parallelism to make use of displacement
sensors and a dial indicator, respectively. In this system,

Development of a Hybrid Bearing Using Permanent Magnets and Piezoelectric Actuators Jung-Ho Park et al.

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Fig. 12. Schematics of sample applications for use of stationary point runout.

Fig. 14. Comparison of results between the back-up bearing trajectory and the result at 1,150 RPM.

Fig. 15. (Color online) Block diagram for the control system of the prototype bearing.

Fig. 13. Maximum width of the circle trajectory obtained

at each rotational speed.

the axis of rotation was assumed to be that for an ideal

rotation, and the parallelism was measured to be about
0.02 mm at the edge of the rotor. This value is negligible
because the radial position of the rotor is more important
than the axial position. Even if the parallelism is transferred to the concentricity by tilting motions, it causes
little change in the radial trajectory of the rotor. The
concentricity was measured by using the displacement
sensors, and the data were acquired by using a DAQ
board. Because the centering error is larger than the
roundness error, only the centering error of the rotor is
of concern for the radial runout and the concentricity.
Figure 13 shows the maximum width of the circle trajectory obtained at frequencies from 300 RPM to 1,500
RPM. Stable characteristics are obtained up to a frequency of 1,200 RPM. Figure 14 shows a comparison
between the results for the back-up bearing trajectory
and the result at 1,150 RPM. Figure 15 shows a block
diagram to control the position of the rotor for a hybrid
magnetic bearing. The initial rotor position with levitation by a hydrostatic bearing and permanent magnets is
set up at the reference position for the controller. Here,
the initial position and the resonance frequency of the
system are slightly affected by the supply pressure for

Fig. 16. Experimental results using a PI controller.

the hydrostatic bearing. Figure 16 shows the obtained

results, and confirms that the performance with control
of the piezoelectric actuator is slightly improved. More
consideration of a precise controller is needed.

IV. CONCLUSION
In this study, a hybrid magnetic bearing using permanent magnets and piezoelectric actuators was proposed

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Journal of the Korean Physical Society, Vol. 57, No. 4, October 2010

as a novel non-contact-type bearing. The optimal magnetic arrangement was analytically investigated through
an electromagnetic field analysis to reduce the unbalance
in the force. Based on the obtained results, a prototype
radial bearing was designed, and an experimental apparatus for the proposed bearing was constructed. Then,
the basic characteristics of the fabricated hybrid magnetic bearing were experimentally investigated using impact tests and runout tests at constant rotational speed.
Finally, a rotor a position control system was constructed
and experimentally investigated.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The authors would like to thank Mr. Yun for helpful
discussions and gratefully acknowledge the financial
support by KM1720 of the Korea Institute of Machinery
& Materials.

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