J. Shanghai Jiaotong Univ. (Sci.

), 2010, 15(1): 76-83

DOI: 10.1007/s12204-010-7151-9
Superconducting Energy Storage Flywheel
An Attractive Technology for Energy Storage
TANG Ji-qiang

(), LIU Gang ( ), FANG Jian-cheng ()

(School of Instrumentation and Optoelectronic Engineering, Beijing University of Aeronautics
and Astronautics, Beijing 100191, China)
Shanghai Jiaotong University and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2010
Abstract: Flywheel energy storage (FES) can have energy fed in the rotational mass of a ywheel, store it as
kinetic energy, and release out upon demand. The superconducting energy storage ywheel comprising of mag-
netic and superconducting bearings is t for energy storage on account of its high eciency, long cycle life, wide
operating temperature range and so on. According to the high temperature superconducting (HTS) cooling mode,
there are zero eld cooling (ZFC) bearings and eld cooling (FC) bearings. In practice, the superconducting bear-
ings are formed by eld-cooled superconductors and permanent magnets (PMs) generally. With respect to the
forces between a permanent magnet and a superconductor, there are axial (thrust) bearings and radial (journal)
bearings. Accordingly, there are two main types of high-temperature superconducting energy storage ywheels,
and if a system comprising both the thrust bearing and the radial bearing will have the characteristics of both
types of bearings. Magnetic force, magnetic stiness and damping are these three main parameters to describe
the levitation characteristics. Arrangement and shape of superconductors, thickness of superconductor, supercon-
ducting ux creep and critical current density of the superconductor aect the magnetic levitation force of these
superconducting bearings. The key factors of FES technology, such as ywheel material, geometry, length and
its support system were described, which directly inuence the amount of energy storage and ywheel specic
energy. All these results presented in this paper indicate that the superconducting energy storage ywheel is an
ideal form of energy storage and an attractive technology for energy storage.
Key words: energy storage, superconducting energy storage ywheel, superconducting journal bearing, super-
conducting thrust bearing, rotor
CLC number: TH 142.8 Document code: A
1 Introduction
The ywheel is proving to be an ideal form of en-
ergy storage on account of its high eciency, long cycle
life, wide operating temperature range, freedom from
depth-of-discharge eects, and higher power and energy
densityon both a mass and a volume basis
[1-3]
. Fly-
wheel energy storage (FES) can have energy fed in the
rotational mass of a ywheel, store it as kinetic energy,
and release out upon demand. The total energy storage
ywheel system including electric circuits is composed
of the energy storage ywheel system, power appliers,
AD/DA converters, a personal computer for control-
ling the motor/generator and a tachometer for detect-
Received date: 2007-12-17
Foundation item: the Postdoctoral Foundation of China
(No. 20060400389) and the National High Technology
Research and Development Program (863) of China
(No. 2006AA05Z241)
E-mail: tjq 72@163.com
ing the ywheel rotation speed. The rotation speed
is controlled by using the personal computer through
the AD/DA converters
[4]
. The MS-C program for con-
trolling the rotation speed is installed in the personal
computer and the rotation speed is controlled by the
applied voltage for the motor coils.
In the 1960s and 1970s, NASA sponsored programs
proposed energy storage ywheels as possible primary
sources for space missions and FES was proposed as
a primary objective for electric vehicles and station-
ary power back-up
[5]
, ber composite rotors were built
and tested in the laboratory by United States Flywheel
Systems (USFS) and other organizations
[6-7]
. With the
development of strong lightweight materials, microelec-
tronics, magnetic bearing systems interest in the poten-
tial of ywheels was ourishing. The present designs
at USFS have been tested and showed power densities
at its designed speed 1.1 10
5
r/min will exceed 11.9
kW/kg with in-out eciency of 93%. The University
of Texas at Austin has subjected a composite ywheel
J. Shanghai Jiaotong Univ. (Sci.), 2010, 15(1): 76-83 77
spinning at about 4.810
4
r/min to more than 9.010
4
r/min charge-discharge cycles with no loss of function-
ality. At the same time an FES delivering 360 MJ en-
ergy and 2 MW rated power was also developed by the
University of Texas at Austin Center
[8-10]
.
The spinning rotor must be supported on bearings.
The main dierent bearing such as high temperature su-
perconducting (HTS) bearings, magnetic bearings and
ball bearings have their own advantages and disadvan-
tages respectively. The important parameters in as-
sessing the use of ball bearings or magnetic bearings are
weight, loss, cost, lifecycle life, and low losses. Magnetic
bearings can levitate the rotor for very high spin speeds
and have theoretically unlimited imbalance, which will
induce vibrations. Ball bearings have beneted greatly
from material advances such as ceramics and very hard
steels. The main life issues are not material fatigue life,
but rather lubricant life. Lubricant life depends primar-
ily on temperature. Bearing life is essentially unlimited
if temperatures are kept low and the lubricant does not
deteriorate.
In general, an upper bound on the spin speed ex-
ists. Above which magnetic bearings are better, below
this bound, ball hearings have a weight advantage be-
cause the drag losses are relatively low. This bound
is application dependent, but generally falls between
2.010
4
and 4.010
4
r/min
[5]
. Recently, HTS bearings
were used in FES, which could contribute signicantly
to lower loss
[11-12]
. HTS bearings have the potential
to reduce rotor idling losses and make ywheel energy
storage economical
[13]
. Very low frictional coecients
can be achieved in the order of 10
6
or even smaller
[3]
.
This very small frictional coecient makes ywheels
with HTS bearings as kinetic energy storages with very
low losses. Its hysteresis loss at 3.0 10
3
r/min was
calculated to be 0.5 W and the sum of eddy current
losses at the same speed was 2.5 W
[5]
.
High-speed ywheel systems, in comparison with
conventional batteries, present some interesting char-
acteristics as energy source for compensators of voltage
sags and momentary power interruptions. The energy
stored in a ywheel is proportional to the moment of
inertia and the square of angular velocity. Then increas-
ing the ywheel angular velocity may increase the en-
ergy density
[9,14]
. The main concerns about increasing
the angular velocity are the viscous air drag, ywheel
strength due to the high rim speed, and the increasing
bearing loss. The viscous air drag can be avoided by
placing the ywheel and the motor-generator inside a
vacuum chamber. The recent development of carbon
ber composite ywheel allows very high rim speed.
High-temperature superconducting magnetic bearings
(SMB) with active magnetic bearings (AMB) and pas-
sive magnetic bearings (PMB) can provide a stable lev-
itation of rotor and minimize the friction losses.
2 Superconducting Levitation Styles
for Superconducting Energy Storage
Flywheel
When a superconductor traps magnetic ux, when
the permanent magnet is moved in horizontal or verti-
cal direction above superconductor, the reversible drag
force is generated against the displacement of trapped
ux. A SMB is one of the applications by using this
characteristic and has characteristics such as extremely
lower friction loss than traditional mechanical bearing
because it can bind a shaft without contact and has very
low rotational drag force. The SMB design incorporates
permanent magnet (PM) arrangement and HTS com-
ponents, the permanent magnets induce a strong high-
gradient magnetic eld around superconductors. The
interaction between the permanent magnet and these
superconductors can ensure the reliable stabilization
of the rotor in both axial and radial directions. The
ywheel comprising of magnetic and superconducting
bearings is t for storing unused electricity as kinetic
energy and converting it to electricity when needed
[15]
.
According to the HTS cooling mode, SMB have two
types: zero eld cooling (ZFC) and eld cooling (FC).
ZFC bearings produce a large levitation force but they
ensure one direction suspension only. Hence, added sta-
bilization of rotating components is required in other
directions. FC bearings produce less level of levitation
force, but they provide passive stability in all direc-
tions. In practice, the superconducting bearings are
formed by these eld-cooled superconductors and the
PMs generally. With respect to the forces between a
PM and a superconductor, there exist two basic types
of SMBs as shown in Fig. 1 for superconducting en-
ergy storage ywheel: axial (thrust) and radial (jour-
nal) type, in which the magnetic eld from PM is along
with the axial and radial direction, respectively. In a
thrust bearing, the load force is in the direction of the
rotational axis, the thrust bearing provides axial sti-
ness to stabilize the levitation. In a journal bearing the
load force is perpendicular to the rotational axis and
the bearing supports the levitation with a lateral force.
The arrangement of the magnets relative to the HTS
can be axially in case of the thrust bearing (shown in
Fig. 1(a)) or be radially in the journal bearing design
(shown in Fig. 1(b)). The stability of the ywheel de-
pends on two main factors: One is the homogeneity
of the magnetic elds, the other is the interaction be-
tween the magnets and the superconducting samples
[4]
.
The thrust bearing of SMB with axial gap is suitable to
bear axial load. On the other hand, the journal bear-
ing of SMB with radial gap is suitable to hold a shaft
on the center of a bearing. Therefore, a system com-
prising both the thrust bearing and the radial bearing
78 J. Shanghai Jiaotong Univ. (Sci.), 2010, 15(1): 76-83
will have the characteristics of both types of bearings.
Figure 2 is the schematic of the superconducting com-
bined bearing.
Accordingly, there are two main types of high-
temperature superconducting energy storage ywheels
as shown in Fig. 3
[13]
.The rst type of high-temperature
superconducting energy storage ywheels prototype is
shown in Fig. 3(a), this system uses an SMB as the ax-
ial thrust one to minimize the bearing losses; a PMB is
used as the radial bearing and AMB are used mainly
to overcome the instabilities at the critical ywheel
speeds. To prevent viscous air drag, the system is
placed in a vacuum chamber. A switched reluctance
machine (SRM) was adopted to make the energy con-
version due its robustness and null idle losses. The
second type of high-temperature superconducting en-
ergy storage ywheels prototype is shown in Fig. 3(b),
the ywheel consists of the ywheel, radial SMB, mo-
tor/generator, radial and thrust AMB and so on. All
the weight of the ywheel is supported by the radial-
type SMB and the radial vibration is controlled by
AMB.
Fig. 1 Schematics of axial and radial bearing geometry Fig. 2 Schematic of superconducting combined bearing
Fig. 3 Schemes of the proposed energy storage ywheel
3 Theorem of the Magnetic Interaction
Between Permanent Magnet and Bulk
Superconductor
To model superconducting levitation and derive the
analytical expressions describing the magnetic force,
magnetic stiness and damping, we will consider a type-
II superconducting cylinder (SC) which is displaced
over a cylindrical PM along their common axis in the z
direction. We use cylindrical coordinates (, , z) with
the origin located at the center of the upper side of
the PM and assume that the PM has uniform magne-
tization M in the z direction. In the region close to
the axis, the components of the H eld created by the
PM are H
z
H

and H
z
is roughly independent of
. Then, the eld in this region can be approximated
by the value of the eld on the axis, which has only
z-component
H
z
=
M
2
_
z +d
_
r
2
+ (z +d)
2

r
2
+z
2
_
, (1)
where r and d are the radius and thickness of the PM,
respectively.
The SC is assumed to be in a critical state as de-
scribed by the Beans model with neither equilibrium
magnetization nor surface barrier. According to this
model, for a zero eld cooled sample, any variation of
the external eld will make the superconductor gener-
ate a constant critical current density at its surface.
Further increasing of the eld will result in a layer with
current density J penetrating the SC inward, until the
applied eld is large enough to penetrate the sample
fully. This penetration eld H
p
= JR, where R is the
radius of the SC. Then, as long as R is small compared
J. Shanghai Jiaotong Univ. (Sci.), 2010, 15(1): 76-83 79
to r, and the thickness d
s
of the SC is small compared to
the vertical scale of magnetic eld variation, the mag-
netization resulting in the SC under the action of the
magnetic eld of the PM can be regarded as constant.
In general, the force over a distribution of currents J
due to an external magnetic eld H is
F =
0
_
(J H)dV , (2)
where
0
is the permeability of vacuum.
If the current ll the volume V , where the eld is uni-
form enough to enable assigning them a mean magneti-
zation M, and these currents have azimuthal direction,
the expression for the force of Eq. (2) can be simplied
to yield a force with only z-component given by
F
z
=
0
M
z
H
z
z
V, (3)
where M
z
and H
z
are the z-components of the magne-
tization of the SC and the eld of the PM, respectively.
In practical, when H
z
> |H
p
|, the explicit depen-
dence of the force on the value of the critical-current
density J
c
for the descending course is simplied as
F
z
=
1
3

H
z
z
J
c
R
3
d
s
. (4)
Apparently, F
z
is proportional to J
c
and depends upon
the SC dimensions. This general dependence is also
valid for fully penetrated states in the ascending course.
The relation between F
z
and J is slightly more compli-
cated for the non-penetrated cases.
The second important parameter for characterizing
the levitation is the magnetic stiness. The magnetic
stiness G is dened as the change of the force due to
a position change of the SC. Therefore, the stiness at
every point of the force curve corresponds to the initial
slope of the minor loop started at this point. The -
component G

of magnetic stiness G is
G

= |F/|. (5)
z-component G
z
of magnetic stiness G is
G
z
=

2
H
z
2


H
_
H
z
_
2

, (6)
where is the permeability. A radial bearing used at
ywheel system is required to have enough stiness to
hold a shaft on the center of bearings. Axial gap bear-
ings bear large axial load but have weak stiness in
radial direction. On the other hand, stiness of radial
gap bearings is 310 times higher than that of axial
gap bearings. So, the radial gap bearings have enough
stiness to hold a shaft on the center of a bearing. The
radial stiness of axial gap bearings in condition of eld
cooling is approximately eight times smaller than ra-
dial gap bearings in the same condition. Comparison
of cooling conditions of radial gap bearings is that ra-
dial stiness in ZFC is larger than that in condition of
FC. But radial stiness of axial gap bearings in condi-
tion of ZFC is smaller than that in condition of eld
cooling. As concerns combined bearings, radial sti-
ness is seemed to be not so dierent between cooling
conditions.
The axial stiness of axial gap type of superconduct-
ing bearing will increase according to decrease of the
gap, the strong force is usable to bearing weight of a
ywheel, but the radial gap type of superconducting
bearings cannot bear larger axial load than the maxi-
mum axial load, which is smaller than that of the axial
gap type.
The third important necessary parameter for charac-
terizing a levitation experiment is the magnetic verti-
cal damping, dened as the hysteretic energy loss pro-
duced when cycling the SC along a minor loop, there-
fore, the damping will be proportional to the area of a
force minor-loop.
4 Factors Aecting Levitation Charac-
teristics
In order to study the eect of the size and shape of
superconductors on the electromagnetic force (EMF),
seven discal bulks with 45 mm in diameter and 20 mm
in height(shown in Fig. 4(a)) and nine rectangle bulks
Liquid nitrogen
container
Liquid nitrogen
container
Liquid
nitrogen
Liquid
nitrogen
Thermal
insulator
Thermal
insulator
(b) Rectangular bulks
(a) Discal bulks
Discalbulk
HTS
Rectanglebulk
HTS
Fig. 4 Arrangements of superconductors
80 J. Shanghai Jiaotong Univ. (Sci.), 2010, 15(1): 76-83
with 40 mm length and 20 mm in thickness (shown
in Fig. 4(b))has been researched
[18]
. In these arrange-
ments, the growth direction of YBCO crystal is directed
parallel to the magnetic eld of permanent magnet,
whereby the induced currents mainly ow within the
superconducting plane of CuO that is a preferred orien-
tation for the super current ow. The used permanent
magnets material is NdFeB and the remanence of it is
1.3 T.
4.1 Eects of Arrangement and Shape of
Superconductors
The source of EMF is the interaction between in-
duced currents and magnetic eld. Induced currents
can ow within the pinned superconductor only at the
surface layer. The penetration depth of induced or
shielding currents is a function of J of the supercon-
ductor. In one dimension, the penetration depth dx is
given by
dB
dx
=
0
J
c
, (7)
where dB is the external magnetic induction. For
example, the discal and rectangle bulks magnet with
thickness 20 mm, J
c
of YBCO superconductors is 30
50 kA/cm
2
at 77 K and the eld strength is 0.10.5 T,
the penetration depth is of the order of 0.1 mm, which
is much smaller than the dimension of the supercon-
ductors, the most volume is shielded by induced cur-
rents. Figure 5 shows the force density relationship
between the discal and rectangle bulks superconduc-
tors, the force density is the amount of repulsive force
divided by the area of arranged bulk superconductors.
The force density curves for two dierent superconduc-
tors almost overlap and indicate that the shape of the
superconductor has a very small eect on the EMF.
Descending
Ascending
6
5
4
3
2
1
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
Distance/mm
F
o
r
e
c
e

d
n
e
s
i
t
y
/
(
N

c
m

2
)
Discal superconductor with
45 mm, thickness 20 mm
Square superconductor with
length 40 mm, thickness 20 mm
Fig. 5 Force density relationship between discal and
rectangle superconductors
4.2 Eect of Thickness of Superconductor
and Permanent Magnet on the Vertical
Magnetic Levitation Force
For a discal superconductor with radius R and thick-
ness d
s
, the eect of the aspect ratio (thickness/width)
d
s
/R on the vertical magnetic levitation force diers
with dierent aspect ratio d
s
/R. For small aspect ra-
tio d
s
/R, the maximum levitation force as a function
of the aspect ratio increases with d
s
/R rapidly, and
saturates at d
s
/R 4. Technically, a superconduct-
ing disk with its diameter 2R approximately equal to
its half thickness d
s
/2 may be optimum for magnetic
levitation, further increase of its thickness will only in-
crease its weight without enhancing the levitation force
signicantly
[18]
.
It is well known that as the thickness of permanent
magnet is increased, the demagnetizing eect or the ge-
ometrical eect is reduced. Therefore the magnetic eld
at the surface of magnet pole increases with increasing
the thickness. As the thickness d of permanent mag-
net increases, the aspect ration d
s
/R of magnet is also
increased, then the repulsive force has the tendency to
increase as the thickness of permanent magnet is in-
creased. This shows that the EMF can be increased
by simply increasing the thickness of the magnet. As
an economic way to increase the eective thickness of
the magnet, it is common to attach an iron yoke on the
back of a magnet.
4.3 Eect of Superconducting Flux Creep and
Critical Current Density on the Vertical
Magnetic Levitation Force
Two superconducting parameters may inuence on
the vertical magnetic levitation force. One is the ux
creep exponent related to the pinning potential. For
high superconductors, is extrapolated to be 2060
and the usual value for in conventional superconduc-
tors is 150. Smaller means lower pinning potential or
higher temperature. The other superconducting pa-
rameter, which drastically inuences the magnetic lev-
itation force, is the critical current density J of the
superconductor. Reference [16] regarded the maxi-
mum levitation force between a superconductor without
trapped magnetic eld and a PM as linear function of
critical current density at very low critical current den-
sity, and saturated at high critical current density. A
tting to the calculated data results in
F
z
=
3.3J
c
9.3 +J
c
. (8)
Reference [17] has testied that the dependence of the
maximum levitation force is a function of J
c
, what dif-
fers from the previous calculation, and the dependence
of the maximum levitation force between a supercon-
ductor with trapped magnetic eld and a PM can be
simplied as
F
z
J

c
, 1 < < 2. (9)
J. Shanghai Jiaotong Univ. (Sci.), 2010, 15(1): 76-83 81
5 Design of the Rotor for Energy
Storage Flywheel
5.1 Flywheel Material
Based on the rotors material , there are two basic
classes of ywheels. The rst class uses a rotor made up
of an advanced composite material such as carbon-ber
or graphite. These materials have very high strength to
weight ratios, which give ywheels the potential of hav-
ing high specic energy. The second class of ywheel
uses steel as the main structural material in the ro-
tor. This class not only includes traditional ywheel
designs which have large diameters, slow rotation, and
low power and energy densities, but also includes some
newer high performance ywheels as well.
The amount of the stored energy is proportional to
the mass of the ywheel and to the square of its angular
velocity and the maximum stored energy is ultimately
limited by the tensile strength of the ywheel material.
The maximum specic (per unit mass) energy density
E
sp
that can be stored in a ywheel may be written as
E
sp
= K
s

f
, (10)
where
m
is the maximum tensile strength of the y-
wheel material,
f
the density of the ywheel, and K
s
is the shape factor. The dependence of E
sp
on mate-
rial properties is proportional to tensile strength and
is inversely proportional to density, the material with
high tensile strength and low density is what we should
chose. Table 1 shows theoretical ywheel energy com-
parison when K
s
= 0.5
[19]
. The highest tensile y-
wheels are not made of steel, but of ber-reinforced
composites. As well as rotating faster and storing more
energy than steel ywheels, these composite ywheels
are much safer if the maximum safe speed is exceeded,
since they tend to delaminate and disintegrate gradu-
ally from the outer circumference rather than explode
catastrophically
[20]
.
Table 1 Physical parameter of commercial bers
Rotor material m/GPa
f
/kgm
3
Esp/(Whkg
1
)
E-glass 3.5 2 540 190
S-glass 4.8 2 520 265
Kevlar 3.8 1 450 370
Spectra 1000 3.0 970 430
T-700 graphite 7.0 1 780 545
T-1000 graphite 10.0 - 780
Managing steel 2.7 8 000 47
5.2 Flywheel Geometry
The geometry of an energy storage ywheel is gen-
erally chosen in such a way as to maximize the energy
density and/or the specic energy
[4]
. Consider rst op-
timization of the moment of inertia. This would involve
placing the mass as far from the axis of rotation as pos-
sible and/or increase the density in order to increase the
inertia moment of the ywheel. Since
m
is given by

m
=
f

2
. (11)
where is the angular velocity of rotor. Flywheels
can readily be designed which make optimal use of the
material strength. By using Eq. (10) the specic energy
E
sp
can be calculated for various rotor designs in terms
of a shape factor, K
s
for isotropic materials (see Table
2). The shape factor K
s
is a measure of the shape
eciency of the rotor in the stress limited case.
Table 2 Shape factor for and specic energy rank-
ing for various ywheel geometry
Flywheel geometry Cross sectional/pictorial view Ks Esp
Thin rim 0.50 Best
Rim with web 0.40
Flat unpierced disc 0.61
Flat pierced disc 0.31 Worst
The case of anisotropic materials such as carbon com-
posite, is not straight forward. For ideal composite
rotors, the analysis is more complicated because the
maximum stress of rotor depends not only on the rotor
shape, but also on the composite material system(s),
fabrication process, loading conditions, and other fac-
tors such as failure modes. The maximum tangential
stress,
t,m
in a long hollow cylinder of anisotropic ma-
terial is given by

t,m
=

f

2
4(1 )
[r
2
0
(1 2) +r
2
1
(1 2)]. (12)
where r
0
, r
1
are the inner and outer radius respectively
and is Poissons ratio. Then for a cylindrical rotor,
the specic energy is
E
sp
=
(r
2
1
+r
2
0
)
t,m

f
_
3
2
(1 2)(r
2
1
r
2
0
)
+ 4r
2
0
_. (13)
Similarly, for a discal shaped rotor, the maximum
tangential stress is given by

t,m
=
3 +
9

f

2
r
2
1
. (14)
Thus, the specic energy is given by
E
sp
=
2
t,m

f
(3 +)
. (15)
Table 2 illustrates that a hollow cy1inder has higher
specic energy.
82 J. Shanghai Jiaotong Univ. (Sci.), 2010, 15(1): 76-83
5.3 Flywheel Length
A rotating body may undergo both rigid body and
exural resonance modes (criticals), the optimal length
of the ywheel rotor is directly related to dynamic con-
siderations. If the bearing system is very rigid, all of
these criticals will occur above the operating frequency
of the rotor. But this will lead to high losses. Thus, a
chosen bearing system should be soft enough to ensure
that the rigid body criticals are passed at low speed.
Once the criticals have been passed on run-up, the ro-
tor will spin about its centre of mass with low damping
losses and low forces on the bearing system. With the
bearing stiness chosen, the length of the rotor aects
the conical rigid body mode. The length to diameter
ratio of the rotor is specically chosen to be signicantly
greater or less than 1:1 to avoid exciting this mode in
the cycling range of the machine. Thus, the choice is
between a disk and a cylinder. The length is simply
chosen to be the maximum safe length below the speed
of the rotor when it is running at its speed of maximum
stress.
6 Conclusion
The ywheel comprising of magnetic and supercon-
ducting bearings is t for energy storage. Supercon-
ducting energy storage ywheel can be used in space
for energy storage, attitude control for satellites. Re-
cent interest in space applications of ywheel energy
storage has been driven by limitations of chemical bat-
teries for Air Force and NASA mission concepts. Su-
perconducting energy storage ywheel can be used in
vehicle to reduce fuel consumption, air and noise pol-
lution, and engine maintenance requirements, and ex-
tending engine life. Superconducting energy storage y-
wheel can be used as power source to against the multi-
ple short-voltage disturbances
[21-22]
, can serve to meet
short-term, random uctuations in demand. It can also
provide ride through for momentary power outages,
reduce harmonic distortions, and eliminate voltage sags
and surges. Of course, there are lots of applications
of superconducting energy storage ywheel not men-
tioned here. ZFC bearings and FC bearings have their
own intrinsic properties. But in practice, the super-
conducting bearings are formed by eld-cooled super-
conductors and PMs generally. Either the axial gap
type of SMB or the radial gap type of SMB has its own
intrinsic properties respectively. A system comprising
both the thrust bearing and the radial bearing will have
the characteristics of both types of bearings. Magnetic
force, magnetic stiness and damping are three main
parameters are used to describe the levitation charac-
teristics. The shape of the superconductor has a very
small eect on the EMF, but the eect of the aspect
ratio on the vertical magnetic levitation force diers
with dierent aspect ratio. The ux creep exponent
is related to the pinning potential, and the smaller ux
creep exponent means lower pinning potential or higher
temperature. The critical current density dependence
of the maximum levitation force between a supercon-
ductor with trapped magnetic eld and a PM can be
simplied as exponential form of critical current den-
sity. All these results presented in this paper indicate
that superconducting energy storage ywheel is an at-
tractive technology for energy storage.
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