Development of a Composite Rotor for Flywheel Energy Storage System

플라이휠 에너지 저장 장치용 복합재 로터 개발

A flywheel system is an electromechanical energy storage device that stores energy by rotating a rotor. The rotating part, supported by magnetic bearings, consists of the metallic shaft, composite rims of fiber-reinforced materials, and a hub that connects the rotor to the shaft. The delamination in the fiber wound composite rotor often lowered the performance of the flywheel energy storage system. In this work, an advanced hybrid composite rotor with a split hub was designed to both overcome the delamination problem in composite rim and prevent separation between composite rim and metallic shaft within all range of rotational speed. It was analyzed using a three-dimensional finite clement method. In order to demonstrate the predominant perfom1ance of the hybrid composite rotor with a split hub, a high spin test was performed up to 40,000 rpm. Four radial strains and another four circumferential strains were measured using a wireless telemetry system. These measured strains were in excellent agreement with the FE analysis. Most importantly, the radial strains were reduced using the hybrid composite rotor with a split hub, and all of them were compressive. As a conclusion, a compressive pressure on the inner surface of the proposed flywheel rotor was achieved, and it can lower the radial stresses within the composite rotor, enhancing the performance of the flywheel rotor.