Fault Tolerant Control of Magnetic Bearings

Fault tolerant control algorithm for heteropolar magnetic bearings are presented. This fault tolerant control utilizes grouping of currents as C-cores in order to isolate magnetic fluxes. Hardware requirements to maintain fault tolerant control are reduced since decoupling chokes are not required in this control scheme. The currents supplied to each pole are redistributed, if some coils fail suddenly, such that the resultant magnetic forces should remain invariant through coil failure events. Load capacity before magnetic saturation is reduced through coil failures while maintaining the same magnetic forces before and after failure.