ENERGY STORAGE IN FLYWHEEL April 5, 2019

A flywheel is a very heavy wheel, formerly a large spoked wheel with a heavy
metal rim but now more commonly made from a carbon-fibre composite
material, with a smaller cylindrical form that is only about a quarter as heavy.
In both cases the principle is the same – it needs significant force to set the
wheel turning, and the same to stop it from spinning. In other words, it has
high angular momentum.

The result is that at high speeds it is able to store a lot of kinetic energy, which
makes it a mechanical battery. That is, it stores energy in the form of kinetic energy
rather than as chemical energy as does a conventional electrical battery.

Theoretically, the flywheel should be able to both store and extract energy quickly,
and release it, both at high speeds and without any limit on the total number of
cycles possible in its lifetime. However, their cost, weight, and energy density have
been traditional concerns with flywheels. These are being addressed with advances
in materials sciences and rotating system design. Environmental concerns are also
driving research into flywheel energy storage systems (FESS).

Flywheels are often large and heavy because they are able to store more energy
that way. On the other hand, smaller and lighter wheels are also used in many
situations because they can spin much faster and thus much more kinetic energy is
generated this way. Thus there are different sizes and shapes of flywheel. With the
availability of modern lightweight composites and ceramics, flywheels are now
usually smaller and able to spin at high speeds.

How Does a Flywheel Work?

The FESS is made up of a heavy rotating part, the flywheel, with an electric
motor/generator. The inbuilt motor uses electrical power to turn at high speeds to set
the flywheel turning at its operating speed. This results in the storage of kinetic
energy. When energy is required, the motor functions as a generator, because the
flywheel transfers rotational energy to it. This is converted back into electrical
energy, thus completing the cycle.

As the flywheel spins faster, it experiences greater force and thus stores more
energy.
ENERGY STORAGE IN FLYWHEEL April 5, 2019

Flywheels are thus showing immense promise in the field of energy storage systems
designed to replace the typical lead-acid batteries.

For a flywheel, kinetic energy is calculated as for a spinning object, as

E = ½Iω2

I is the moment of inertia, which depends on the actual mass and the location of that
mass from the spinning centre – the farther out it is the higher the moment of inertia
becomes.

ω is the angular velocity of the flywheel.

Thus the best flywheel in terms of moment of inertia could be one which is larger,
spoked and lightweight, but with a heavy rim of metal. If the rim is twice as heavy as
the original, this would store double the energy that a lighter rim would, but the
mechanical limitations increase correspondingly. On the other hand, doubling the
rate of spinning yields twice the angular velocity, which means the energy stored is
quadrupled!

Flywheels turn on bearings which require proper lubrication to minimize frictional

forces. Air resistance must also be reduced to as little as possible. For this reason,
the latest development in flywheels is mounting them on low-friction bearings inside
sealed metal cylinders, or even better, floating them on superconducting magnets
which avoids friction almost completely and placing them inside vacuum chambers to
avoid air drag as well.

The FESS is capable of generating several mW of power for brief periods. Flywheels
are best suited to produce high power outputs of 100 kW to 2 mW over a short
period of 12-60 seconds. The peak output, at 125 kW for 16 seconds, is sufficient to
provide 2 mW for one second.

There are two basic flywheel configurations. In one type the flywheel is attached to
the shaft and both rotate together. This is termed a conventional rotor. The other
type consists of a flywheel spinning around a shaft which does not move, also called
an inside-out rotor.
ENERGY STORAGE IN FLYWHEEL April 5, 2019

Advantages
The benefits which make the FESS so appealing include:

 High power density

 High energy density
 Lifetime independent of charge depth or discharge cycle
 Low maintenance
 Short recharge time
 Independent of temperature due to a vacuum environment
 Environmentally friendly materials and process

Disadvantages
However, the FESS has some issues as well:

 Requirement for sturdy and durable bearings with low frictional loss
 Mechanical limitations as energy storage increases
 Danger of fragmentation or mechanical cracking at around 700M/second
 Failure mode could be potentially dangerous
 Short discharge time

Roanak Khandelwal

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