A Practical Demonstration for Simultaneous

Suspension and Rotation for a Ferromagnetic Objectan Application of DC Electromagnetic Levitation.

Subrata Banerjee

Mrinal Kanti Sarkar

Department of Electrical Engineering

NIT Durgapur
Durgapur, India
bansub2004@rediffmail.com

Department of Electrical Engineering

NIT Durgapur
Durgapur, India
itsmrinal2u@gmail.com
DC electromagnetic levitation system is inherently
unstable and strongly non-linear in nature and closed-loop
stability is obtained by feedback control system [4-11].
Classical lead controllers are generally used for this purpose.
But in this system other than lead feedback controller extra
damping is provided by one aluminum disc that is mounted on
the hollow steel cylinder. In fact this aluminum disc is used
for extra damping during levitation and for production of the
driving force during rotation. When the object is at rest (not in
levitated condition) the driving force is not sufficient to rotate
it because of friction.

AbstractIn this paper a practical demonstration for

simultaneous levitation and rotation for a ferromagnetic object is
presented. A hollow steel cylinder of 59 gm mass is arranged to
remain suspended stably under I-core electromagnet utilizing
DC electromagnetic levitation principle and then arranged to
rotate the levitated cylinder around 1000 rpm speed based on
eddy current based energy meter principle. Since the object is to
be rotating during levitated condition the device will be
frictionless, energy-efficient and robust. This technology may be
applied to frictionless energy meter, wind turbine, machine tool
applications, precision instruments and many other devices
where easy energy-efficient stable rotation will be required. The
cascade lead compensation control scheme has been applied for
stabilization of unstable levitation system.

Levitation of cylindrical body and then rotation of it based

on induction type energy meter is un-common. The controller
circuit is based on analog system and the device will be very
much cost effective, energy efficient, friction less and simple.

KeywordsElectromagnetic levitation; switch-mode power

amplifier; PWM control logic; lead compensator; damping force;
inductive type proximity sensor; energy-meter principle.

I.

II.

INTRODUCTION

The suspension of objects in air with no visible means of

support due to magnetic force is called magnetic levitation [13]. Magnetic levitation systems are receiving increasing
attention recently, due to their practical importance in many
engineering systems. Magnetic levitation is produced in many
different ways. This work is related to the analysis, design and
development of a DC electromagnetic levitation system.
There may be numerous applications of magnetic levitation in
industry; but here it is aimed to develop frictionless stable
rotation of a ferromagnetic cylindrical object during levitated
condition with a view to apply in frictionless energy meter,
wind turbine, machine tool applications etc.
A hollow steel cylinder of 59 gm mass is made to remain
suspended stably around different operating air-gaps under Icore electromagnet utilizing DC attraction type principle and
is arranged to rotate the levitated cylinder around 1000 rpm
speed based on eddy current based energy meter principle. So
essentially the device consists of two integral components

i.
Levitation System
When the electromagnet is excited there will be a force of
attraction between the magnet pole-face and the ferromagnetic
cylinder. It is essential to regulate the current of the
electromagnet accurately and quickly with the help of position
feedback and associated control. The system is inherently
unstable and strongly non-linear in nature. So this levitation

(i) levitation system and (ii) moving system.

k,(((

DESCRIPTION OF THE EXPERIMENTAL SET-UP

The experiment is divided in to two different parts (i)

levitation system and (ii) moving system. The photograph of
the experimental set-up and the block diagram for the
proposed control system is shown in Fig.1 and Fig.2
respectively. It is clear that one hollow cylinder is arranged to
suspend under I-core electromagnet which is attached with a
wooden frame. One inductive type position sensor [6] is
placed below the ferromagnetic cylinder to measure the
relative air-gap between pole-face of magnet and object. One
circular aluminum disc is mounted on the hollow steel
cylinder and is placed in the air gap between the series and the
shunt magnets. The actual connection diagram of the AC
electromagnets is given in Fig.3. It is very similar to the
connection of single phase induction type energy meter.



process is basically a problem of feedback control system. In

the present levitation system, magnet coil current has been
preferred as the input to the position loop controller rather
than voltage as the input variable. There are many advantages
of current mode control over voltage mode control in
electromagnetic levitation system. From Fig.4 it is seen that
the position control loop takes the reference gap voltage as its
input command and generates the gap error voltage by
comparing the reference with the actual gap. The gap error is
then fed to a position controller. Since the electromagnetic
levitation system is open loop unstable (having a pole on the
right half of s plane), the selection and design of the
controller is important so that the overall closed loop system
becomes stable and gives satisfactory performance. A lead
compensator is used in cascade with the position control loop.
A linear inductive type position sensor is used to measure the
actual gap between the magnet pole-face and the guide-way.
The output of the position controller produces a reference coilcurrent signal to be acted upon by the inner control loop. The
aim is to control the coil current to achieve the required force
of attraction. In the present work it was felt that overall
transfer function of the closed loop controller would get
significantly simplified if the position control loop directly
outputs reference coil current signal (provided the chopper
circuit can regulate coil current over a fairly wide frequency
band). Output of the position loop (current reference signal) is
compared with the actual coil-current signal sensed by an
LEM make (LA-55P) Hall-effect current sensor. For better
dynamic response and steady state accuracy the current error
is processed through a PI controller and its output is used to
control the chopper output voltage through PWM control
logic. The duty ratio of the MOSFET switches varies as the
object moves up and down within the electromagnetic field.
When the ferromagnetic cylinder moves upwards (beyond
reference gap) the duty ratio of the MOSFET gate pulse is
decreased, consequently the magnet current decreases and
causes it to go down and vice-versa. To facilitate proper duty
ratio control of the MOSFET switches, a triangular wave of is
produced. The triangular waveform is compared with the PI
controller output of the current loop. The comparator
generates the desired PWM waveform to be used for driving
the MOSFET switches after required amplification.
Essentially the current controller and the chopper will try to
make the coil-current follow the reference current produced by
the position controller.

Fig.1. Photograph of the experimental set-up.

Fig.2. Block diagram for the proposed control system.

Fig.3. Connection diagram of AC Electromagnets.

ii.
Moving system
The driving system consists of two silicon steel laminated
AC electromagnets as shown in Fig.3. The series magnet
carries a coil consisting of a few turns of thick wire. This coil
is called the current coil and it is connected in series with the
circuit. The load current flows through this coil. The shunt
magnet carries a coil consisting many turns of thin wire. This
coil is called the voltage coil and is connected across the
supply it consist of current proportional to the supply voltage.
Short circuited copper bands are provided on the lower part of
the central limb of the shunt magnet. By adjusting the position
of these loops the shunt magnet flux can be made to lag
behind the supply voltage exactly 900. These copper bands are
called power factor compensator (PFC) [14].

Fig.4. Basic block diagram of overall closed loop system.

One circular aluminum disc is mounted on the hollow steel

cylinder and is placed in the air gap between the series and the
shunt magnets. The magnetic field produced by shunt
electromagnet is pulsating in character and cuts through the



aluminum disc and induces eddy currents there in, but

normally does not in itself produce any driving force. The
reaction between these two magnetic fields and eddy currents
set up a driving torque in the disc [14]. The speed of the
levitated object may be varied by either by changing the
voltage across the shunt magnet or by changing the load
current.
The damping force acts on the aluminum disc both during
static (only levitation) and rotating condition of levitated
cylindrical object. First consider the static condition of the
cylindrical object. Since the DC electromagnetic levitation
system is open loop unstable, the system has been stabilized
by the closed loop feedback controller. Good stability is
achieved by feedback controller itself during static condition.
Now if the object oscillates due to any reason, a changing
magnetic field is generated in the air-gap region. The timevarying magnetic field has two sources: (1) The change in the
field generated by the electromagnet (when the position of the
object changes, the controller adjusts the currents supplied to
the electromagnets (2) During oscillation of object, an emf is
induced on the aluminum disc by magnetic flux lines of DC
electromagnet (levitation magnet). The disc is closed path
hence induced emf circulates current through the disc called
eddy current. The direction of such eddy current is so as
oppose the cause producing it. The cause is relative motion
between disc and field. Thus it produces an opposing torque so
as to reduce the oscillations of levitated object.

Fig.5. Root locus plot of 10mm plant with Lead controller.

Again during stable rotation of the levitated object the

aluminum disc cuts the magnetic flux lines of DC
electromagnet which causes an induced emf in the disc and
eddy current damping is produced as discussed during static
condition. The damping force depends on the speed of the of
aluminum disc attached to the object. Obviously during stable
high speed rotation the eddy current damping produced by the
aluminum disc is much more effective than static levitated
condition. It is to be mentioned that there will not be any
damping force on the aluminum disc if the object floats at
stable condition (no oscillation), once oscillation starts due to
any reason damping force will act on the disc due to aforesaid
reason.
III.

Fig.6. Schematic diagram of lead controller circuit.

It is clear that the compensated zero is placed at -45 (i.e.

between 0 and -48.81) and the pole is placed around 12 times
of the zero location to reduce the effects of high frequency
noise (due to EMI etc). The hardware circuit for the controller
used in this work is shown in Fig.6.
IV.

The circuit diagram of the power amplifier is shown in

Fig.7. The MOSFET switch used is the International rectifier
(IRF450) and the fast recovery power diode (MUR460) is of
Motorola make. A DC capacitor (10 F, 400V) and a variable
resistor (185) are used as the energy dump circuit. MOSFET
source is connected to control ground and consequently no
gate drive isolation is required. This is an added advantage of
this circuit over mostly used power amplifiers used in
MAGLEV systems [5]. When the switch is turned on, full
supply voltage appears across the coil and the current in the
coil increases. Thus energy flows from source to the load.
Duration of current flow through the coil in each switching
cycle is equal to the ON duration of the gate-driving pulse.
During ON time the energy dump capacitor (10 F, 400V)
that holds some charge due to previous operation, discharges
partially through the rheostat (185 ). During OFF period of
the switch, the coil current finds a path through fast-recovery
power diode to the resistor capacitor combination. The
capacitor voltage effectively appears across the coil with a

CONTROLLER DESIGN

In this work a cascade lead compensation control scheme

[12-13] has been implemented for the overall close loop
stability. The transfer-function of the unstable maglev system
at 10mm operating air-gap is given by

G(s) =

22.27
(s + 48.81)(s 48.81)

(1)

Simulation studies are carried out to find a pole-zero and

gain combination so that the system is stable as well as
acceptable performance is obtained. The root locus plot of the
stabilized system around 10 mm operating air-gap utilizing
Lead compensation is shown in Fig.5. The transfer-function
of the lead compensator is given in Eqn. (2)

C ( s) = 12.24

( s + 45)
( s + 526)

POWER AMPLIFIER

(2)



negative polarity (reverse of the polarity during ON duration).

With reversal of coil voltage the coil current starts decreasing
at a slope decided by the coil inductance and the capacitor
voltage. One essential requirement of the power circuit is to
have quick control over the magnet current and this call for
application of bipolar voltage (positive as well as negative)
across the coil.
V.

EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS

Figure.8 shows the dynamic responses of current (CH-2)

and position signal (CH-4) during vertical movement of the
object. When the main switch of control pulse is suddenly ON
the cylindrical object gets vertical lift from the rest position
and the dynamic responses for position and current have been
recorded. Similarly when the gate pulse is switched OFF, the
levitated body falls due to gravity. This demonstration shows
the stable movement control of the hollow steal cylinder that
lifts from a platform. The closed loop position and current
responses are stable and have satisfactory transient response.
But there are some spikes during levitation of the object even
though the position signal is filtered by low pass filter circuit.
These spikes are coming because the oscilloscope probe is
picking up some noises during capturing.

Fig.10. Closed loop position response with Square-wave disturbance (with

aluminum disc).

Fig.11. Closed loop position response with square-wave disturbance (without

aluminum disc).

Fig.9 shows current (CH-2) and position signals (CH-4)

while the moving system is ON and OFF during levitation of
the cylindrical object. The cylindrical object is first levitated
by means of separate independent controller and then the
object is arranged to rotate by moving system. It appears that
(Fig.9) during rotation of the levitated object both the current
and position signals becomes thicker and noisy than the
signals during rested levitation position. This happens due to
the cross-coupling effects between electromagnetic fields
produced by the electromagnets of levitation and rotation
system. These two figures clearly demonstrate stable levitation
and rotation of the cylindrical object. It is to be mentioned that
during rest condition of the object the rotational driving force
is not sufficient to overcome the static friction of the system
and was not able to rotate the object.

Fig.7. Simplified chopper circuit for single magnet levitation.

At first the system is suspended based on electromagnetic

levitation utilizing cascade compensated lead compensator.
Since the system is very much unstable system and it has to be
rotated at high speed so extra damping is provided by one
aluminum disc that is mounted on the hollow steel cylinder.
This aluminum disc is used for extra damping during
levitation and for production of the driving force during
rotation. This claim is verified with experimental results.
Fig.10 and Fig.11 shows the closed loop position response
with square-wave disturbance with or without aluminum disc
respectively. It is clear that Fig.10 shows over-damped
response than Fig.11.

Fig.8. Current (CH-2) and position (CH-4) response during vertical

movement of the object from rest position .

VI.

CONCLUSION

This device is related to stable high speed frictionless

rotation of hollow ferromagnetic cylinder during levitated
condition. Electromagnetic levitation is common and there are
lots of applications of it in industry. Again rotation of energymeter based on eddy current principle is established truth. But

Fig.9. Current (CH-2) and position signals (CH-4) when the AC supply of
driving system is ON and OFF during stable levitation of the object.



levitation based on DC electromagnetic principle of a

ferromagnetic cylindrical structure and then high speed
rotation based on induction type energy meter principle is
newly developed in this device. Here of course braking system
is not present due to requirement of high speed rotation of the
object.

[4]

[5]

[6]

Since the object is to be rotating during levitated condition

the device is frictionless, energy-efficient and robust. This
technology may be applied to frictionless energy meter, wind
turbine, machine tool applications, precision instruments and
many other devices where easy energy-efficient stable rotation
is required.

[7]

[8]

Moreover this proposed system automatic closed loop

speed control of rotor may easily be obtained either varying
the input supply voltage or changing load current.

[9]

[10]

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The author wishes to acknowledge DST, Govt. of India for
sponsoring the Project No.SR/S3/EECE/0008/2010 entitled
Development of DC Electromagnetic Levitation Systems
Suitable for Specific Industrial Applications.

[11]

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