Simulation of flywheel electrical system for aerospace applications

A flywheel energy storage demonstration project was initiated at NASA Glenn Research Center as a possible replacement for the battery energy storage system on the International Space Station (ISS). While the hardware fabrication work was performed at a contractor's place and at a university, the related simulation activity was begun at NASA Glenn research center. At the top level, the primary electrical system of ISS is simulated with one battery charge and discharge unit (BCDU) replaced by the flywheel energy storage unit (FESU) which is described in another paper. The FESU consists of a permanent magnet synchronous motor/generator, PMSM, (connected to the flywheel), the power electronics that connects the PMSM to the ISS DC bus, and the associated controller. While the PMSM model is still under development, the rest of the FESU model is described in this paper.