Levitation analysis of a ring shaped permanent magnet-high temperature superconductor vertical bearing system

This paper presents a model of the interaction between a ring shaped high temperature superconductor (HTS) and a permanent magnet (PM), using the frozen image approach. The levitation configuration of a ring permanent magnet inside a ring HTS resembles the radial type bearings found in many machine systems. The dynamical behaviour of the PM-HTS bearing mostly depends on the stiffness of the levitation. For the proposed PM-HTS configuration, the stiffness is computed on the basis of a magnetic potential obtained with a frozen image concept. The variation of the stiffness is analysed for angular and translational movements