Science and Technology on Inertial Laboratory, School of Instrumentation Science and Opto-Electronics Engineering, Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Beijing 100083, China.
Sensors (Basel). 2012;12(8):10693-706. doi: 10.3390/s120810693. Epub 2012 Aug 6.
The Eddy Current Displacement Sensor (ECDS) is widely used in the Magnetic Suspension Flywheel (MSFW) to measure the tiny clearance between the rotor and the magnetic bearings. The linear range of the ECDS is determined by the diameter of its probe coil. Wide clearances must be measured in some new MSFWs recently designed for the different space missions, but the coil diameter is limited by some restrictions. In this paper, a multi-channel ECDS equipped with dual-coil probes is proposed to extend the linear range to satisfy the demands of such MSFWs. In order to determine the best configuration of the dual-coil probe, the quality factors of the potential types of the dual-coil probes, the induced eddy current and the magnetic intensity on the surface of the measuring object are compared with those of the conventional single-coil probe. The linear range of the ECDS equipped with the selected dual-coil probe is extended from 1.1 mm to 2.4 mm under the restrictions without adding any cost for additional compensation circuits or expensive coil materials. The effectiveness of the linear range extension ability and the dynamic response of the designed ECDS are confirmed by the testing and the applications in the MSFW.
电涡流位移传感器（Eddy Current Displacement Sensor，ECDS）广泛应用于磁悬浮飞轮（Magnetic Suspension Flywheel，MSFW）中，用于测量转子和磁轴承之间的微小间隙。ECDS 的线性范围由其探头线圈的直径决定。在最近为不同空间任务设计的新型 MSFW 中，必须测量较宽的间隙，但线圈直径受到一些限制。本文提出了一种配备双线圈探头的多通道 ECDS，以扩展线性范围，满足这些 MSFW 的需求。为了确定双线圈探头的最佳配置，比较了双线圈探头的各种潜在类型的品质因数、感应涡流和测量物体表面的磁场强度与传统单线圈探头的相应参数。在不增加额外补偿电路或昂贵线圈材料成本的限制下，选用的双线圈探头将 ECDS 的线性范围从 1.1mm 扩展到 2.4mm。通过在 MSFW 中的测试和应用，验证了所设计的 ECDS 的线性范围扩展能力和动态响应的有效性。
