Magnetic Bearing Sets for a Flywheel System

Abstract

This paper presents a magnetic bearing set developed to work in a flywheel energy storage system. The bearing set is composed of a permanent magnetic bearing (PMB) and a superconducting magnetic bearing (SMB). A new configuration of a PMB having Nd-Fe-B magnet rings and a back yoke is proposed and compared with an existing one. Finite element method (FEM) simulations were used to design two different PMB configurations. Measurement results of axial and radial forces were carried out in zero field cooling (ZFC) and field cooling (FC) processes in two SMB topologies. These measured force results are presented and discussed in order to discover which configuration is more promising for the proposed application.