Characterization of non-contact torque transfer and switching system for superconducting flywheel

Superconducting flywheel energy storage system can store the energy for a long duration, in that the main body of a flywheel is placed in a vacuum chamber to minimize rotational loss, and is separated from a generation motor. The superconducting flywheel device need a non-contact system which can transfer the rotational torque without contact. A combination of two permanent magnets can transmit the power without contact. We calculated the torque forces and the field distributions of two types of magnetic arrays; repulsive type and Halbach type. Both magnetic circuits have respective inner and outer diameters of 61.5 and 144 mm and consist of eight poles of Fe–Nd–B permanent magnets 30 mm in thickness. We also studied the effects of the number of poles and the size on the transferable torque forces and found that a practical torque transfer and switching systems can be constructed with a combination of permanent magnetic circuits.