Abstract
Permanent magnet thrust bearings offer advantages such as non-contact operation, high-speed capability, and low noise, but their load-carrying performance is highly sensitive to magnet arrangement and geometric configuration. This study proposes a novel four-layer nested three-pole cross-type permanent magnet thrust bearing assembled from modular permanent magnet units. The bearing structure and magnetic circuit are first developed, followed by an axial force model based on the equivalent magnetic circuit method and a three-dimensional finite element model established in ANSYS Maxwell. The numerical model is further validated through experiments. Results show good agreement among theoretical, numerical, and experimental trends, confirming the reliability of the proposed modeling approach. Parametric analyses reveal that radial magnetization provides the highest load-carrying capacity, reaching approximately 16.8 kN. Among the investigated magnet geometries, trapezoidal magnets achieve the highest simulated load-carrying capacity, followed by fan-shaped and rectangular magnets. Under a fixed permanent magnet volume, the 6-layer × 15 mm axial stacking configuration and the 9-layer × 12 mm radial stacking configuration achieve the highest load-carrying capacities in their respective arrangements. These findings provide guidance for the structural optimization of multilayer permanent magnet thrust bearings.