Fault Diagnostic Opportunities for Electromagnetic Coils of Active Magnetic Bearings using Physics-of-Failure Analysis

Active magnetic bearings (AMBs) have many advantages over traditional oil bearings due to their non-contact characteristics. They are environmentally friendly solution and have been proven to be highly reliable and available. Electromagnetic coils are vital components of AMB and they are failure prone. In this paper, the failure mode of magnetic bearing coil and its corresponding failure mechanism are reviewed by FMMEA method, and the existing coil fault diagnosis methods are introduced. Future directions for coil insulation health monitoring aiming at the application characteristics of AMBs are also discussed.