Motor vehicles – With fluid or mechanical means to accumulate energy to power...
Patent
1996-03-07
1999-08-03
Camby, Richard M.
Motor vehicles
With fluid or mechanical means to accumulate energy to power...
180 653, 180312, B60K 100
Patent
active
059312491
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
This invention relates to kinetic energy storage systems and, in particular but not exclusively, to flywheel systems for storage of motive power in vehicles, for example to substitute for battery energy storage.
It has been proposed to provide energy storage devices in vehicles in the form of flywheels, the flywheels being charged up by various prime movers and providing an energy source to power, for example, an electric generator. The capacity of such energy storage systems has hitherto been limited by various factors including the additional weight imposed on the vehicle, the need for high rates of rotation, safety requirements, the availability of suitable materials, decay in stored energy over time, and the availability of suitable systems for driving the flywheel and for releasing energy from the flywheel rotor.
An object of the invention is to provide an improved kinetic energy storage system in which at least some of the above limitations are reduced.
According to the invention a kinetic energy storage system comprises housing means defining a cylindrical space, one or more flywheel rotors located within the housing means; a rigid framework of which the housing means comprises at least a part, the framework being incorporated into a structure, such as a vehicle, as a main supporting element of the structure; drive and driven means for driving the or each flywheel rotor and for extracting energy from the flywheel rotors; and control means for controlling the system. When two rotors are employed one of the rotors is arranged to rotate in the opposite direction to the other.
Preferably the housing means is in the form of one or two elongate cylinders with multiple flywheel rotors located end to end in a cylinder, or with the flywheel rotors located one to each cylinder respectively. In the case when two cylinders are used the cylinders may be located with their axes spaced from and parallel to one another and the cylinders may be rigidly interconnected in said rigid framework. Such framework may constitute chassis means of a vehicle.
Each of the flywheel rotors may be associated with motor generator means whereby the rotors are driven and whereby energy is extracted from the rotors. The motor generator means may be located interiorly of the housing means, a stator being located at the axis of each rotor and being operatively associated with a motor generator rotor carried internally of the flywheel rotor as part of the flywheel rotor. The internal space within the housing of the flywheel rotor may be sealed to enable a vacuum to be created within said space. In one embodiment the motor generator is an inverted switched reluctance motor generator and the bearings for the flywheel rotor are magnetic bearings which may be active and/or passive magnetic bearings. The motor generator function may be separate from or integrated with one or both active magnetic bearings.
The flywheel rotor is preferably formed with at least its outer part incorporating a high strength material which may be an anisotropic material such as graphite or Kevlar fibre. The outer part of the flywheel rotor is normally in close proximity to the cylindrical internal wall of the housing means and the wall may be coated with low friction material so that in the unlikely event that the rotor under, for example, bearing failure conditions comes into contact with the housing wall, friction is reduced.
Cooling means may be conveniently provided in the stator from which the flywheel rotor is supported for rotation so that cooling of the motor generator takes place during normal use. This also provides a cooling facility if the flywheel rotor should rapidly decelerate.
The energy storage system may find application in a static location as a source of energy, for example to charge similar mobile systems, as an independent source of energy charged from, say, off peak electricity supplies, for uninterruptable power supply systems, or for load equalising systems in an electricity distribution system. However the primary application of the system
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Ellis Christopher William Henderson
Stoffer Jay Herbert
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