Electrical generator or motor structure – Dynamoelectric – Rotary
Reexamination Certificate
1999-08-16
2001-05-22
Enad, Elvin (Department: 2834)
Electrical generator or motor structure
Dynamoelectric
Rotary
C310S090500, C310S178000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06236127
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention resides in a flywheel energy accumulator with a vertical shaft and passive superconductive magnetic axial bearings and an electric motor/generator including a rotor coupled mechanically to several flywheels and a stationary armature with a vacuum housing in which the flywheels are disposed in spaced relationship.
Superconductive magnetic bearings are particularly suitable for supporting relatively large flywheel masses for storing energy with relatively small losses. The superconductive bearings do not require any controls as they are self stabilizing. With flywheel energy accumulators, electric energy is converted in a motor/generator unit to kinetic energy which is stored in a flywheel disc. It is important that the losses during the storing of the energy are minimized so as to retain as much as possible of the stored energy. For this reason, the rotor of the system is supported without mechanical contacts by superconductive magnets as pointed out earlier.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,043,577 discloses a flywheel energy accumulator with a vertical shaft and passive superconductive magnetic axial bearings. However, the energy storage capability of this accumulator, which cannot be easily geometrically enlarged, is insufficient for electrical power networks or even for use in motor vehicles.
It is the object of the present invention to provide an improved flywheel energy accummulator with an energy storage capacity and a performance in the range of 1 to 5 MW and 50 to 150 kwh.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In a flywheel energy accumulator including, in a vacuum-tight housing, a vertical shaft with a rotor of an electric motor/generator arranged in the axial center of the shaft and flywheels mounted on the shaft at opposite sides of the rotor, the electric motor/generator and the flywheels are included in modules, each with a housing ring, which are mounted on top of one another and receive bearing modules including support discs mounted between, and adjacent, the housing rings with superconductive magnetic bearings disposed in the center thereof around the shaft for supporting the shaft with the flywheels and the rotor. The number of superconductive bearings is twice the number of flywheels. The bearing module discs between adjacent flywheels have upper and lower superconductive magnetic bearings and the bearing modules at the axial ends of the shaft and adjacent the rotor carry each only one superconductive magnetic bearing so that the number of superconductive magnetic bearings is greater, by two, than the number of flywheels.
With the modular design of the flywheel energy accumulator according to the invention particular advantages are obtained: By the combination of various motor/generator modules with several flywheel modules a large spectrum of applications can be covered. If, for example, a high power output, but relatively low energy storage capacity or medium power output and high energy storage capacity are desired, the desired configuration can be accommodated simply by a selection of certain modules or by the addition or elimination of certain modules. For example, in order to increase the energy storage capacity additional flywheel modules with the respective additional bearings and cryostat modules may be added above and below the motor/generator unit and connected to the rotor shaft.
The invention will be described below in greater detail on the basis of the accompanying drawing.
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patent: 5160911 (1992-11-01), Herring
patent: 5214981 (1993-06-01), Weinberger et al.
patent: 5495221 (1996-02-01), Post
patent: 5760506 (1998-06-01), Ahistrom et al.
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patent: 5801469 (1998-09-01), Takahata et al.
patent: 6043577 (2000-03-01), Bornemann et al.
patent: 196 08 099 (1997-02-01), None
patent: 0 526 903 (1993-02-01), None
patent: 8 251869 (1996-09-01), None
patent: 8 247183 (1996-09-01), None
Bach Klaus J.
Enad Elvin
Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe GmbH
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