Dynamics considerations for a magnetically suspended flywheel

The design of a magnetically suspended flywheel energy storage system for satellite applications is optimized. An inner-ring interference of 0.006 is found to be greatly beneficial for an inner radius growth of 8.7 mil at speed. The optimum amount of iron present in the inner ring is shown to be 5.5 lb for this flywheel. Modal testing is used to obtain the natural frequencies and mode shapes of a flywheel system prototype. These results are used to suggest design modifications to remove resonances from the operating range. If this is found to be impossible, the results can be used to verify a mathematical model which can be used to study improved control system designs.<
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