Rotor dynamics analysis and experiment study of the flywheel spin test system

The strength study of the flywheel is important to the flywheel energy storage. The motor and bearing are the key challenges for the high-speed flywheel spin test device in vacuum. By using a small stiffness pivot-jewel bearing and a spring squeeze film damper as the lower support of the flywheel, a simple spin system was designed at a low cost and is suitable for longtime operation. The auxiliary support at the top was not removed until the flywheel passed the first critical speed. The flywheel that kept its rigid state in sub-critical state was tested at the high speed without the top support. The dynamic model of the flywheel-bearing-damper was built by means of the Lagrangian equation to calculate critical speeds, mode shapes and modal damping ratios at different speeds. The lower damper’s effects on the modal damping ratios and forced vibration were discussed. The vibrations of the flywheel-bearing-damper system were measured at the different damping coefficients in the experiment. When the lower damper was adjusted to be overdamped, the flywheel ran up to 50000 r/min steadily, and the experimental result was in agreement with the theoretical assumption. The sub-critical rotor dynamics design and pivot-jewel bearing proved to be good solutions to the spin test for the composite flywheel.