A superconducting thrust-bearing system for an energy storage flywheel

We have constructed a bearing system for an energy storage flywheel. This bearing system uses a combination of permanent magnets and superconductors in an arrangement commonly termed as an Evershed bearing. In an Evershed system there are in fact two bearings which act in concert. In our system we have one bearing constructed entirely out of permanent magnets acting in attraction. This system bears the weight of the flywheel (43.6 kg) but would not, on its own, be stable. Stability is provided by a superconducting bearing which is formed by the interaction between the magnetic field of a permanent magnet sited on the rotor and superconductors on the stator. This overall arrangement is stable over a range of levitation heights and has been tested at rotation speeds of up to around 12 Hz (the maximum speed is dictated by the drive system not the bearing system). There is a sharp resonance peaking at between 2 and 3 Hz and spin down tests indicate that the equivalent coefficient of friction is of the order of 10−5. The rate of change of velocity is, however, not constant so the drag is clearly not solely frictional. The position of the resonance is dictated by the stiffness of the bearing relative to the mass of the flywheel but the amplitude of the resonance is dictated by the variation in magnitude of the magnetic field of the permanent magnets. Large magnets are (at present) fabricated in sections and this leads to a highly inhomogeneous field. The field has been smoothed by using a combination of iron which acts passively and copper which provides magnetic shielding due to the generation of eddy currents and therefore acts as an 'active' component. Calculations based on the spin down tests indicate that the resultant variation in field is of the order of 3% and measurements are being carried out to confirm this.