IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON APPLIED SUPERCONDUCTIVITY, VOL. 24, NO.

3, JUNE 2014 3600204

Analysis of Mass Unbalance Torque on a
Spinning Superconducting Rotor
Xinning Hu, Fei Gao, Chunyan Cui, Jianhua Liu, Hui Wang, Yi Li, Zhipeng Ni, Junsheng Cheng, and Luguang Yan
AbstractA spherical superconducting rotor is spinning at low
temperature of 4.2 K. The mass unbalance torque is generated by
gravity, inertia, and suspension force acting on the rotor that has
a mass eccentricity. An analytical model is proposed to calculate
the mass unbalance torques on the rotor. Analytical results show
that the mass unbalance torque due to the axial mass eccentricity
affects the rotor drift, and that the radial mass eccentricity affects
the rotor speed and the vibration.
Index TermsCritical speed, disturbance torque, mass eccen-
tricity, Meissner effect, rotor drift, superconducting spherical
rotor.
I. INTRODUCTION
T
HE APPLICATIONS of superconducting magnetic lev-
itation technology to develop all kinds of devices with
high precision and low energy consumption have been pro-
posed in recent years, such as accelerometer, gravimeter, etc.
[1][8]. A levitated spherical superconducting rotor is sup-
ported magnetically by the diamagnetic property of the super-
conducting niobium of which the rotor is manufactured. Due to
the material inhomogeneity and manufacture error, the rotor is
not a perfect sphere and its mass center deects from the center
of sphere. These imperfections lead to additional disturbance
torques acting on the spinning rotor. These disturbance torques
will cause drift and affect the rotation stability of the rotor.
References [9][12] show some models to calculate the
magnetic suspension torque on a superconducting rotor sup-
ported by different bearing structure. In this paper, we propose
the analytical models to calculate the mass unbalance torques
acting on a spinning superconducting rotor.
II. ANALYSIS OF MASS UNBALANCE TORQUE
A superconducting suspension system has been built for test-
ing in the Institute of Electrical Engineering, Chinese Academy
of Sciences. Fig. 1 shows the main conguration of the super-
conducting suspension system. The diameter of the suspension
coil is 66.4 mm. The rotor with the weight of 107.21 g is a
hollow ball with the diameter of 50 mm. The thickness of the
central tube is 0.8 mm. The distance from the polar axis of the
Manuscript received July 16, 2013; accepted September 13, 2013. Date of
publication October 1, 2013; date of current version October 7, 2013. This
work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under
Grant 50925726 and Grant 51107135.
The authors are with the Institute of Electrical Engineering, Chinese
Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China (e-mail: xininghu@mail.iee.
ac.cn).
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/TASC.2013.2283654
Fig. 1. Conguration of the superconducting suspension device.
rotor to the stator coil center is 6.33 mm. The distance from
the polar axis to the inner wall of the niobium tube is 8.33 mm.
The diameter of the spherical rotor housing is 51 mm. When the
rotor is suspended in the center of the rotor housing, the bearing
gap between the rotor and the inner surface of the rotor housing
is 0.5 mm. The stator is a 4-pole, 2-phase system [13]. The
horizontal driving force generated by magnetic ux lines acts
on four windows of the niobium tube. This force will drive the
superconducting rotor to spin. When the superconducting rotor
reaches an operating speed of 12000 rpm, the stator coils can
be de-energized completely or operated at very low currents.
Fig. 2 shows the diagram of the rotor mass eccentricity. The
origin point O is the center of the rotor, O
1
is the mass center
of the rotor, and OO
1
is the mass eccentricity vector which is
dened as in the rotor coordinate system O
XYZ
. In the rotor
coordinate system O
XYZ
, the mass eccentricity vector can be
written as
=
X
i +
Y
j +
z
k (1)
where
X
,
Y
and
z
are the components of in the X-axis,
Y-axis and Z-axis, respectively.
It is assumed that the mass eccentricity of the rotor is only
along the polar axis direction, then
= k, =
z
. (2)
The specic force vector a which is the sum of gravity and
inertia force acting on the rotor can be written as
a = g u = a
x
X + a
Y
Y + a
z
Z (3)
1051-8223 2013 IEEE
3600204 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON APPLIED SUPERCONDUCTIVITY, VOL. 24, NO. 3, JUNE 2014
Fig. 2. Diagram of mass eccentricity of the rotor.
Fig. 3. Axial mass eccentricity versus drift rate of the rotor.
where g is the gravity on the unit mass, u is the inertial force
on the unit mass, a
x
, a
Y
and a
z
are the components of a in the
X-axis, Y-axis and Z-axis, respectively.
When gravity, inertia and suspension force are acting on the
rotor together, a resultant torque can be written as
M = m
_
_
a
Z
sin cos a
Y
cos
a
X
cos a
Z
sin sin
a
Y
sin sin + a
X
sin cos
_
_
(4)
where m is the mass of the rotor, is the angle of rotation,
is the angle of precession, is the angle of nutation.
If there is only gravity effect on the rotor, and OZ-axis is
vertical, then the axial unbalance torque M
a
acting on rotor can
be described as
M
a
= mg
z
sin i. (3)
The axial unbalance torque will cause the rotor drift because
it is always perpendicular to the polar axis. The rate of the rotor
drift can be written as

d
=
mg
z
sin
0
H
(6)
where
0
is the error angle of polar axis, H is the angular
momentum.
Fig. 3 shows the relationship between the drift rate and the
axial mass eccentricity of the rotor. The rotor drift rate is liner
Fig. 4. Diagram of three displacement vectors.
with the axial mass eccentricity of the rotor. In order to reduce
the rotor drift, we must reduce the axial mass eccentricity as
much as possible.
In Fig. 4, the coordinate system O
2XYZ
is dened as the
inertial coordinate system. The O
2
Z-axis is parallel with the
polar axis. Point O
2
is the intersection of the rotation axis
and the equatorial plane of the rotor, called the track point of
rotation axis. It can be regarded as the xed point of the rotor,
but not the rotor center. During the rotation, the rotor center
point O and the mass center point O
1
make circular movement
around the point O
2
. The displacement vector from point O
2
to O
1
is and the displacement vector from point O
2
to O
is e
0
. The relationship of these displacement vectors can be
described as
= e
0
+ . (7)
And the differential equation of motion can be written as
m

e
0
+Ke
0
= 0 (8)
where K is the bearing stiffness, and is the damping factor.
Substituting (7) into (8), we obtain

e
0
+2nk

e
0
+k
2
e
0
=

(9)
where k =
_
K/m, and n = /2km. The magnitude of is
constant and it rotates around the point O
2
with the angular
velocity , then
=
XY
(cos ti + sin tj) (10)
where
XY
is the radial mass eccentricity of the rotor.
We dene e
ox
and e
oy
as the projections of e
0
in the
X-axis and Y-axis, respectively, and use complex variable Z
to describe e
0
, then the projection equation of (9) in the X-axis
and Y-axis can be combined into a plural equation as

z +2nk

z +kz
2
=
2
e
it
. (11)
The homogeneous solution of (11) is
z = Ce
nkik

1n
2
t
. (12)
HU et al.: ANALYSIS OF MASS UNBALANCE TORQUE ON A SPINNING SUPERCONDUCTING ROTOR 3600204
Fig. 5. Amplitude-frequency curves of vibration of the rotor.
According to the magnitude of n, there may be three different
types of motion. When n > 1, it is non-periodically attenuated
motion with large damping. When 0 < n < 1, it is periodically
attenuated motion with small damping. When n < 0, it is
periodically divergent motion with negative damping [14]. In
order to express the vibration clearly, the vibration amplitude
e
0
and the vibration phase can be described as
e
0
=
s
2
_
(1 s
2
)
2
+ 4n
2
s
2

XY
(13)
= arctan
_
2ns
1 s
2
_
(14)
where s = /k.
Assuming the derivative of e
0
/
XY
to s is zero in (13), we
obtain the equation of the maximum vibration amplitude and
the critical speed of the rotor, respectively
_
(e
0
)
max
=
1
2n

1n
2

XY

cr
=
k

12n
2
(15)
where (e
0
)
max
is the maximum vibration amplitude, and
cr
is
critical speed.
When n = 0.1 in (15), the maximum vibration amplitude
is approximately as much as ve times as the radial mass
eccentricity when the rotor speed is close to its critical speed.
Fig. 5 shows the amplitude-frequency curves in the coordinate
system of (s, e
0
/) with different parameters of n. The smaller
the value of n is, the larger the maximum vibration amplitude
is. It is well known that a rotor will have maximum vibration
amplitudes when its speed is close to critical speed. From
analysis we could reduce the maximum vibration amplitude by
reducing the radial mass eccentricity or increasing the damping
factor.
In addition, the action lines of centrifugal inertia force and
suspension force are through the point O
2
, and the torque with
the point O
2
is zero. The resultant torque is
M = e
0
F = e
0

e
0
= e
0
_

e
0
_
= e
2
0
.
(16)
The equation of the rotor rotation around the polar axis can
be written as
M =
d
dt
(J) (17)
where J is the moment of inertia.
Substituting (16) into (17), and replacing by dimensionless
parameter s, we can obtain the projection equation of (17)

s =

m
_
e
0
r
_
2
s (18)
where r is the radius of inertia relative to the polar axis.
Substituting = 2nkm and (13) into (18), we obtain

s = 2nk
_

XY
r
_
2
s
5
(1 s
2
)
2
+ 4n
2
s
2
. (19)
The starting conditions is at t = 0, s = s
0
. With separation
and integral of the variables of (19), the decay law of the rotor
speed with time t can be written as
t =
1
2nk
_
r

XY
_
2
_
ln
_
s
0
s
_
+ (2n
2
1)
_
1
s
2

1
s
2
0
_
+
1
4
_
1
s
4

1
s
4
0
__
. (20)
From (20) we can see that the speed decay time t is inversely
proportional to the quadratic of the radial mass eccentricity.
So the radial mass unbalance torque due to the radial mass
eccentricity affects not only the rotor vibration but also the rotor
speed.
III. CASE STUDY
Here, an example is given to discuss the torques. The mass
of the rotor is 107.21 g. The inertia moment of the rotor
is approximately 504.39 g cm
2
. The operating speed of the
rotor is 12000 rpm. Due to the very small misalignment angle
of the rotor, we assume that
0
= 1

. When the axial mass

eccentricity of the rotor is 1 m, substituting the parameters
into (5) and (6), we nd that the axial mass unbalance torque
is 1.84 10
8
N m and the drift rate due to the axial mass
eccentricity is 0.059

/h. These calculation results are larger

than the rated values of the axial mass unbalance torque of
3.1 10
9
N m and the drift rate of 0.01

/h. We assume that

the bearing stiffness is 4.3 N/mm, n is 0.1, the radial mass
eccentricity is 1 m, the radius of the rotor is 25 mm, and
the operating speed is 12000 rpm. Substituting the parameters
into (20), we nd that the time of the speed decay with 10% is
about 457.7 hours. It also needs attention to the decay of the
rotor speed caused by the radial mass unbalance torque. From
analysis we must improve the manufacturing accuracy to reduce
the axial and radial mass eccentricity of the rotor.
IV. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The experimental setup is shown in the [15]. Niobium is used
for the rotor. The rotor housing was immersed in the liquid
3600204 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON APPLIED SUPERCONDUCTIVITY, VOL. 24, NO. 3, JUNE 2014
Fig. 6. Bearing stiffness versus critical speed at the different value of n.
cryostat. The rotor was suspended in the housing center with
a gap of 0.5 mm by controlling the suspension coils. A ber-
optic-sensor measurement system was used to properly control
the current of positive pulses (square wave) supplied from the
external sources of two stator coils. Furthermore, the control
of the rotation direction, acceleration, or deceleration of the
rotor could be realized through the control of the current pulsed
on the two stator coils. The horizontal driving force generated
by the magnetic ux lines acting on the four windows of the
niobium tube. This force will drive the superconducting rotor
to spin [16].
The experiment was performed at 4.2 K. The ramp rate of
the vertical bearing coil was 0.3 A/s. The current of the torque
windings was increased to 20 A to keep the rotor erected in the
rotor housing. The alternating current of square wave of 30 A
was supplied to a two-phase stator windings to spin up the rotor
at a pressure of 1000 Pa. When the upper and lower suspension
currents were 1 A and 10.1 A, respectively, the rotor critical
speed measured by the ber optic sensors was about 620 rpm.
When the upper and lower suspension currents were 8 A and
13.1 A, the critical speed was about 1149 rpm. And when the
currents were 16 A and 18.4 A, the critical speed was about
1751 rpm.
Fig. 6 shows the calculation results of the bearing stiffness
and the critical speed at different values of the parameter n.
Different bearing stiffness corresponded to different critical
speeds with the same value of n. The difference between
calculation and experimental results is due to the calculation
error of bearing stiffness and parameter n. The spinning rotor
vibrates severely and rubs the rotor housing possibly at the
critical speed zone. Therefore, in order to ensure the rotor
passing the critical speed quickly and safely, feasible methods
of mass unbalance control should be proposed.
V. CONCLUSION
An analytical model for calculating the mass unbalance
torque acting on the rotor due to the mass eccentricity is
proposed. The analytical results show that the axial mass un-
balance torque affects the rotor drift and that the radial mass
unbalance torque affects the rotor vibration and the speed. So
it is necessary to minimize the mass eccentricity of the rotor as
much as possible for the highly steady and precise operation of
the spinning rotor.
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