1. Technical Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a magnetic bearing device.
2. Description of the Related Art
A magnetic bearing device has a rotating shaft that is a rotor, and a bearing structure that is a stator which surrounds the rotating shaft and supports the rotating shaft in a non-contact manner by a magnetic force.
The rotating shaft is formed using a magnetic material, and is, for example, a rotating shaft of a turbo compressor, an ultra-low temperature rotary machine, a turbo charger, a flywheel, or the like which rotates at high speed. As the types of the rotating shaft, there are a laminated type using laminated steel sheets, and a solid type.
In the laminated type rotating shaft, as shown in
In the solid type rotating shaft, the rotating shaft is made only of a shaft material without using the above laminated steel sheets. Thus, it is also possible to cope with high rigidity and high circumferential speed. On the other hand, in the solid type rotating shaft, an eddy current is easily generated in the surface of the rotating shaft, and an eddy current loss becomes significantly high. Therefore, generally, the solid rotating shaft is not used.
The bearing structure has a plurality of magnetic pole portions arranged in a circumferential direction so as to surround the rotating shaft. The rotating shaft is supported in a non-contact manner in which magnetic flux is generated from the magnetic pole portions toward the rotating shaft which is rotating at high speed to float the rotating shaft by an electromagnetic attracting force. As such a bearing structure, there are a hetero-polar bearing structure and a homo-polar bearing structure.
The hetero-polar bearing structure has the magnetic-pole-shape that is most generally adopted because of easiness in manufacturing.
The homo-polar bearing structure is shown in
e∝B·v·L (1)
e: electromotive force, B: magnetic flux density, v: speed of traversing magnetic field, and L: length of conductor
As described above, conventionally, when the laminated type rotating shaft is not used, even the homo-polar bearing structure has a problem that the eddy current generated on the surface of the rotating shaft cannot be sufficiently reduced.
Therefore, a magnetic bearing device which can solve the problem that an eddy current is generated on the surface of the rotating shaft is expected, without using the laminated type rotating shaft. Such a magnetic bearing device is described in Patent Document 1 specified below.
Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2001-271836 (Magnetic Bearing Device)
It is still more desirable if the eddy current in the surface of the rotating shaft can be significantly reduced by simple machining without using the laminated bearing structure.
Thus, an object of the present invention is to provide a magnetic bearing device which can significantly reduce an eddy current in the surface of a rotating shaft by simple machining by technical means different from Patent Document 1, without using laminated steel sheets.
In order to solve the above problems, according to the present invention, a magnetic bearing device comprising a rotating shaft and a bearing structure for supporting the rotating shaft by a magnetic force, wherein the bearing structure has magnetic pole portions facing an outer circumferential surface of the rotating shaft and surrounding the rotating shaft, and supports the rotating shaft in a non-contact manner by a magnetic force generated between the magnetic pole portions and the rotating shaft, a depression is formed in the surface of the rotating shaft, and at least one of a shape, a position, and the number of the depressions is set so as to suppress an eddy current on the surface of the rotating shaft that is generated by rotation of the rotating shaft and by a magnetic field caused by the magnetic pole portions.
In the above configuration, an eddy current is suppressed by forming the depression in the rotating shaft. Accordingly, an eddy current can be significantly reduced by simple machining without using laminated steel sheets. That is, in the present invention, the depression is formed by performing depression machining on the surface of the integrally formed rotating shaft to suppress an eddy current. Thus, it becomes possible to significantly reduce an eddy current using a solid rotating shaft on which depression machining is performed.
According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, one or a plurality of grooves is formed as the depression so as to extend in the circumferential direction in the portion of the surface of the rotating shaft which faces the magnetic pole portions. For example, in a homo-polar bearing structure in which the magnetic pole portions includes an S-pole portions and an N-pole portions that are lined up in the axial direction of the rotating shaft, one or a plurality of the grooves is formed in the circumferential direction in the portion facing the S-pole portion and the portion facing the N-pole portion, in the surface of the rotating shaft.
In the above configuration, since one or more grooves are formed in the circumferential direction in the portions of the surface of the rotating shaft facing the magnetic pole portions, an eddy current can be effectively interrupted, and the eddy current can be significantly reduced.
Additionally, according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, a depth of the depression is at least approximately the skin depth of the rotating shaft.
In the above configuration, since the depth of the depressions is at least approximately the skin depth of the rotating shaft that is a depth where an eddy current flows, an eddy current can be effectively interrupted, and the eddy current can be significantly reduced.
According to the above-described invention, an eddy current in the surface of the rotating shaft can be significantly reduced by simple machining without using the laminated bearing structure.
Hereinafter, the best embodiment for carrying out the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. Additionally, in the respective drawings, the same reference numerals are given to common portions, and duplicate description is omitted.
In the example of
According to this embodiment, a depression 9 is formed in the surface of the rotating shaft, and at least one of the shape, the position, and the number of the depressions 9 is set up so as to suppress an eddy current on the surface of the rotating shaft that is generated by the rotation of the rotating shaft 3 and a magnetic field caused by the magnetic pole portions 7.
Additionally, according to this embodiment, the depressions 9 are one or a plurality of grooves which is formed so as to extend in the circumferential direction in the portions of the surface of the rotating shaft facing the magnetic pole portions. That is, the groove 9 is formed in the circumferential direction in one or a plurality of axial positions of the rotating shaft 3 facing the pole portions 7a and 7b, respectively. In the example of
According to this embodiment, the depth of the groove 9 is at least approximately the skin depth of the rotating shaft 3. Here, the skin depth will be described briefly. That is, when the frequency (fluctuation frequency of a magnetic field which acts on the rotating shaft 3 in this embodiment) of a signal which is transmitted through a conductor (rotating shaft 3 in this embodiment) becomes high, an electric current concentrates on the surface of the conductor from the inside of the conductor by the skin effect, and the depth to which this electric current flow by the skin effect is called the skin depth.
The skin depth 6 is expressed by the following formula.
Here, ω is the angular frequency of an electric current which flows through the conductor, μr is the relative magnetic permeability of the conductor, μ0 is magnetic permeability in vacuum, and σ is the electric conductivity of the conductor.
In this embodiment, since the skin depth of the rotating shaft 3 can be set to approximately 1 mm, or 1 mm or less, an eddy current can be effectively suppressed by setting the depth of the grooves 9 to approximately 1 mm, or 1 mm or less. For example, when the rotating shaft 3 is formed of AISI4140 (i.e., chrome molybdenum steel) having the relative magnetic permeability of 3300, and the electric conductivity of 2352941 (S/m), the skin depth of AISI4140 becomes 0.81 mm at the frequency of 50 Hz, and increases with the increase of frequency. That is, the skin depth becomes 6 μm at a frequency of 1×106 Hz, and becomes 4 μm at a frequency of 2.5×106 Hz. According to this embodiment, when the solid rotating shaft 3 is formed using AISI4140, and the rotating shaft is rotated at high speed so that the frequency becomes 1×106 Hz to 2.5×106 Hz, the depth of the grooves 9 may be approximately 6 μm. In addition, as long as an eddy current can be suppressed by providing the grooves 9, the material of the rotating shaft 3 is limited to steel, and may be other suitable one such as iron.
Additionally, as can be seen from Formula 1, the skin depth becomes smaller as the rotating speed of the rotating shaft 3 becomes high speed. Thus, when the rotating shaft as a target rotates at higher speed, it becomes possible to suppress an eddy current only by forming minuter groove 9. In addition, the width of the grooves 9 is such a size that an eddy current can be suppressed. That is, it is preferable that the width of the grooves is equal to the depth of the grooves 9, or even if the width of the grooves is more than the depth of the grooves 9, it is such a size that an eddy current can be interrupted and divided like
Additionally,
As such, from the results of
As described above, the depth of the groove 9 may be approximately the skin depth of the rotating shaft 3. In this case, the strength of the rotating shaft 3 hardly deteriorates. According to material mechanics, the stress generated in the rotating shaft 3 which rotates becomes minimum at the outermost external diameter (i.e., surface) of the rotating shaft 3 when there is no cavity inside the rotating shaft 3 or when there is a cavity inside the rotating shaft 3 (for example, a cylindrical rotating shaft). For example,
According to the magnetic bearing device 10 of this embodiment described above, an eddy current is suppressed by forming the grooves 9 in the rotating shaft 3. Thus, an eddy current can be significantly reduced by simple machining without using laminated steel sheets. That is, in this embodiment, the grooves 9 are formed by cutting out the surface of the integrally formed rotating shaft 3 to suppress an eddy current. Thus, it becomes possible to significantly reduce an eddy current using the solid rotating shaft 3. Additionally, since one or more grooves 9 are formed in the circumferential direction in the portions of the surface of the rotating shaft 3 facing the magnetic pole portions 7, an eddy current can be effectively interrupted. Additionally, since the depth of the grooves 9 is set to at least the skin depth of the rotating shaft 3, an eddy current can be effectively interrupted. Accordingly, the grooves 9 are formed by setting the depth of the grooves 9 to the skin depth, so that the strength of the rotating shaft 3 hardly deteriorate.
Additionally, according to another embodiment of the present invention, a plurality of depressions 9 is formed in the portion of the surface of the rotating shaft 3 facing the magnetic pole portions 7. This can increase the resistance of an eddy current which flows in the surface of the rotating shaft 3, thereby suppressing an eddy current. Preferably, as shown in
In addition, it is natural that the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, but various modifications may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention.
For example, although the case where the depressions 9 are applied to the magnetic bearing device 10 having the homo-polar bearing structure 5 has been described in the above embodiments, the present invention is not limited thereto, but the depressions may be formed in a magnetic bearing device having a hetero-polar bearing unit.
When the grooves 9 are formed in the circumferential direction, the grooves 9 do not necessarily have to completely circle the rotating shaft 3 if an eddy current generated on the surface of the rotating shaft 3 when there is no groove 9 is interrupted and divided. For example, grooves 9 which extend in the circumferential direction, but do not completely circle the rotating shaft 3 may be provided in a plurality of adjacent axial positions such that the grooves 9 differs from each other in the circumferential position where the groove 9 does not exist. Thereby, these grooves 9 can interrupt and divide an eddy current generated on the surface of the rotating shaft 3 when there is no groove 9.
Additionally, in the above-described embodiments, the grooves 9 are formed in the circumferential direction of the rotating shaft 3. However the present invention is not limited thereto but one or a plurality of grooves may be formed in the axial direction of the rotating shaft 3 in the surface of the rotating shaft 3.
Although the number of the magnetic pole portions arranged in the circumferential direction is four in the above-described embodiments, other suitable number of magnetic pole portions may be arranged in the circumferential direction. In this case, more magnetic pole portions may be arranged in the circumferential direction than those of the above-mentioned embodiments to be multi-polarized.
Additionally, although the case where the present invention is applied to the rotating shaft 3 of the turbo compressor which rotates at high speed has been described in the above-described embodiments, the present invention is not limited to this, but the present invention may be applied to other rotating shafts which are supported by a magnetic force and which rotate at high speed to generate an eddy current.
In addition, the grooves on the present invention may be applied to the magnetic bearing device of Patent Document 1. In this case, in
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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030860/2007 | Feb 2007 | JP | national |
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
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PCT/JP2008/052006 | 2/7/2008 | WO | 00 | 7/2/2009 |