Basic Research Impacting Advanced Energy Generation and Storage in Space
Abstract
We have studied the feasibility of using High Temperature Superconducting levitation bearings for Flywheels and momentum wheels in energy and momentum storage for space applications. We have constructed a small flywheel prototype to demonstrate the principle. Measurement of small residual losses in HTS levitation bearings so as to be able to optimize design parameters to keep the losses to the lowest possible. There are two distinct loss mechanisms: magnetic hysteresis in HTS, or eddy currents in the rotating magnet. There are three parts to our study efforts: measurement of torque in a simple HTS levitation bearing with a non-axisymmetric magnet to study hysteresis loss in HTS, development of instrumentation capable of detecting varying magnetic field in reference frame co-rotating with magnet - to study eddy current loss in magnet, modeling and computation to provide understanding and direction to the experimental efforts. Impact on cryocoolers to the overall power consumption are estimated. All studies are summarized in a set of preprints to be published.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Aug 08, 2000
- Accession Number
- ADA381573
Entities
People
- Ki Ma
- Wei-kan Chu
Organizations
- Texas Center for Superconductivity