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james.braid@wits.ac.za
I. I NTRODUCTION
A. Rural Microgrids
This paper follows on from [1] where simplicity and robustness are paramount for survival in the deep-rural and tough
conditions of Africa. In hostile environments with minimal
maintenance and a lack of technical support, the use of power
electronics and smart technologies may be inappropriate in
these circumstances. Such a microgrid is envisaged to provide the user with the most basic form of electrical supply;
loads would typically be small and primarily resistive [1].
Subsequently, the tight frequency limits imposed on modern
networks need not be applied. For the purposes of this paper,
the microgrid requires a base frequency of 50 Hz with a
20 % variation either side being the limits of operation i.e.
a frequency band from 40 Hz to 60 Hz.
B. Energy Storage in Flywheels
The rotational energy W of a solid body spinning at about
its Z-axis is given by equation 1,
1
W = I d = I 2
(1)
2
where the bodys moment of inertia I is determined from its
mass distribution dm along its radius r, given by equation 2.
I = r2 dm
(2)
From equations 1 and 2, the rotational energy of the
ywheel is directly proportional to the product of 2 and r2 .
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1 2 2
r
2g
(3)
R
Ir
where :
Ir = 2 r3 Z(r) dr
(5)
r=0
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TABLE I
M OMENTS OF INERTIA FOR COMMON GEOMETRIES .
Geometry
Moment
Irod =
1
M R2
8
Idisk =
1
M R2
2
Description
narrow rod of r =
1
R
2
Ihoop = M R2
solid disk of r = R
hoop of r = R
Fig. 2.
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A. Depth of Fluid
dr
-
Fig. 3. Containers prole dened in the r-Z plane showing the uids
distribution at zero-speed.
Z
6
dV
?
0
Fig. 4.
Zf luid
@Z
I
bot
-r
B. Demonstration Flywheel
A ywheel with a base-speed of 0 corresponding to
300 rpm, an outer radius of R = 200 mm and lled with
25 l of water, is modeled below. These numbers have been
chosen for illustration purposes only; a legitimate design
would primarily be based on the energy storage requirements.
To attain a base-frequency of 50 Hz, a 20-pole generator,
possibly built into the unused cavity of the ywheel, would
need to be employed. The 0.8 to 1.2 P U frequency band
stipulated in Section I-A correspond to synchronous speeds
of 240 and 360 rpm respectively. With reference to Figure 2,
to store the highest possible energy within this speed range,
the steepest possible slope for WV ar is required. This implies
that the highest moment of inertia (i.e. Ihoop ) must already be
adopted by 1 i.e. a transition at a speed somewhere below
0.8 P U .
V =
R
dV (r)
where :
(6)
and :
(7)
(8)
r=0
dV (r) = 2r Z(r) dr
The loop continues until the summed volume equals the set
uid volume, returning the vertical offset C. A negative value
of C simply means that all the uid has been displaced away
from the Z-axis.
B. Fluid Dispersion
C. Transition Speed
Since a step-change transition of Ivar would not be possible
in a rigid container, a speed range of 0.4 P U centered about
0.6 P U is assumed to be sufcient for a ramp-change to span;
this corresponds to a transition speed of 180 rpm.
From equation 3, the uid surface is dened by Zf luid (r) =
2 r2
2g ; to achieve a moment of inertia equal to Idisk at
the transition speed of 180 rpm, the bottom surface of the
container must take the same curve of Zbot (r) = 18.109 r2 .
At this speed and for a radius of r = 200 mm, the surface of
the liquid rises to h = 724 mm above its minimum point at
r = 0. Finally, a simple at surface with a sufciently large
void below for the uid to occupy, is dened for the containers
top by Ztop (r) = 1200.
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TABLE II
F LUID DISPERSION WITHIN CONTAINER FOR INCREASING SPEEDS .
I =
R
dI(r)
(9)
r=0
Ivar ()
(11)
TABLE V
Fig. 5.
TABLE IV
VOLUME DISTRIBUTION
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Fig. 6.
VI. C ONCLUSION
At 1 the energy stored in the variable inertia ywheel
is W1 = 0.31 P U , slightly less than that of Wdisk . At
2 , W2 = 0.93 P U , a difference of 0.16 P U from that
predicted in Section II-C, directly caused by Ivar failing to
reach the theoretical Ihoop on which the prediction is based.
Consequently, the extractable energy Wvar = 0.62 P U is
lower than anticipated, but when expressed as a ratio, still
yields 66.7 %; i.e. 11.1 % more than the hoop-type ywheel.
When compared to the elastomer ywheel in [7], the
extractability ratio of this liquid-based ywheel is not as high
as the 80 % of the former. In addition, the former achieves
this within a narrower speed range of 0.05 P U which, if
used in the same application as this paper, would result in
a frequency band from 48.5 Hz to 51.5 Hz. This signicant
improvement comes at a price however, the high-speed of
operation (approximately 7500 rpm) far exceeds the 3000 rpm
limit imposed on a ywheel that is to be directly coupled to
the grid.
V. O BSERVATIONS AND R ECOMMENDATIONS
With reference to Figure 6, 1.0 P U of energy corresponds to
approximately 500 J; combined with its low speed (300 rpm)
and large dimensions (1200 mm high 400 mm diameter),
the demonstration ywheel presented has no immediate practical applications. However, the concept of a speed-varying
moment of inertia has been demonstrated.
During the simulation process it was noted that: The curve
of the uids surface, dened by equation 3, is independent
of the volume of liquid beneath it, the shape of the container,
or the density of the uid. Equation 3 therefore offers little
freedom of design and hence simple geometries will result in
high aspect ratio containers (i.e. tall and narrow) with a large
volume of unused space in the center. The uids density only
impacts the resultant moment of inertia; water was chosen as
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