Topology and performance of superconducting magnetic bearings

The paper presents different topologies of inherent stable magnetic support systems consisting of monolithic high temperature superconductors (HTSC) and permanent magnets (PM). They may be used as contactless magnetic bearings for high speed rotating machines. Depending on the application, cylindric, conic or disk shaped HTSC‐PM arrangements with increased both radial and/or axial forces and stiffnesses are proposed. The dependencies of optimal pole pitch on the air gap are given including the effects of limited current densities associated with the behaviour of real monolithic superconductors. Furthermore, the effect of zero field and maximum field frozen HTSCs on the performance of magnetic HTSC bearings are represented. To compute the magnetic HTSC‐PM interaction a new extended finite element (EFEM) program is applied.