Design of superconducting magnetic bearings with high levitating force for flywheel energy storage systems

Hybrid superconducting magnetic bearing (SMB), using YBCO high temperature superconductors (HTS) coupled with permanent magnets, has been implemented into a flywheel energy storage (FES) system prototype. The hybrid SMB design uses permanent magnets to levitate the rotor weighing 19 kg and superconductors to stabilize the inherently unstable magnet-magnet interactions. The SMB bearings are brought into action under convenient field-cooled conditions. Spin-down performance of the constructed FES prototype was tested under a moderate vacuum.<
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