Current research in flywheel energy storage in the Composites Manufacturing Technology Center at Penn State University is aimed at developing a cost effective manufacturing and fabrication process for advanced composite rotors. Composites are desirable materials for flywheels due to their light weight and high strength.
High strength is needed to achieve maximum rotational speed.
Therefore, advanced composite rotors enable the storage of greater amounts of energy on a per unit weight or volume basis, in comparison with other materials. Flywheels offer the potential of higher energy and power density in comparison with conventional energy storage devices such as chemical batteries. There is much interest in flywheels for energy storage in applications as diverse as satellites, stationary diurnal storage, uninterruptable power supplies, and hybrid electric vehicles. In the figure shown to the left, Chris Gabrys, a Ph.D. graduate in the Engineering Science and Mechanics Department, checks out the electronics on a demonstration flywheel energy battery. The rotor on this flywheel battery consists of concentric rings of glass and carbon reinforced epoxy that are either press fit at the interfaces or separated with compliant polyurethane interlayers for radial stress relief during operation.