Abstract
An overview summary of recent Boeing work on high-temperature superconducting (HTS)bearings is presented. A design is presented for a small flywheel energy storage system thatis deployable in a field installation. The flywheel is suspended by a HTS bearing whosestator is conduction cooled by connection to a cryocooler. At full speed, the flywheel has5 kW h of kinetic energy, and it can deliver 3 kW of three-phase 208 V power to anelectrical load. The entire system, which includes a containment structure, iscompatible with transportation by forklift or crane. Laboratory measurements of thebearing loss are combined with the parasitic loads to estimate the efficiency ofthe system. Improvements in structural composites are expected to enable theoperation of flywheels with very high rim velocities. Small versions of such flywheelswill be capable of very high rotational rates and will likely require the low lossinherent in HTS bearings to achieve these speeds. We present results of experimentswith small-diameter rotors that use HTS bearings for levitation and rotate invacuum at kHz rates. Bearing losses are presented as a function of rotor speed.
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