Thermal model of electromechanical flywheel with brushless DC machine

A thermal model of an electromechanical flywheel with a brushless DC machine is presented. Thermal analysis is particularly important during vacuum operation of the flywheel. Accurate prediction of temperature facilitates material selection, structural integrity and good performance. In addition, the choice of vacuum level, bearings, conductor sizes and system overload capability can be attributed to a good thermal model. A thermal model was developed and simulated on MATLAB Simulink. The simulation results were compared with experimental results and a good correlation was observed.