Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
Railway Research Centre, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Imperial College London, 2School of Engineering and Mathematics, City University London
High-speed flywheels combine a range of advantages; our research is investigating their potential for rail applications.
Electrolytic capacitors
Film caps
8 6 4 2 0
Engine Idle
Auxiliary Use
Auxiliary Use
Transmission Loss Transmission Loss
A mechanical transmission system offers a potentially efficient way of enabling regenerative braking with the high specific energy and power of flywheel storage. It is proposed that a simple gearbox incorporating a planetary gear set (PGS) can be used with a small secondary energy storage system (SESS) to allow efficient and rapid charging and discharging of the flywheel. The configuration and operation of the system is illustrated below.
Schematic Diagram of Proposed System Simulation Results for Discharge/Charge Cycle (assuming no transmission losses)
45
Electric
Diesel
Source: Improving the efficiency of traction energy use, RSSB report, 2007
Energy (MJ)
30
Vehicle Flywheel SESS
15
0 0
30 Time (s)
60
90
1 1 0.5 0.5 0 00 0 100 100 200 200 300 300 400 400
Power (MW)
200 200
300 300
400 400
SESS provides initial acceleration before discharging flywheel Flywheel stores 85% of total energy 82% of flywheel energy passes directly through PGS to vehicle
1 0 -1 -2 0
5 5
10 10
15 15
A detailed component based model of the flywheel system has been developed (using a hydraulic SESS) which predicts a round-trip efficiency of around 75%. An experimental test-rig will be used to validate system performance for representative duty cycles, and will allow investigation of alternative configurations.
30 Time (s)
60
90