Prototype of electric driveline with magnetically levitated double wound motor

This paper presents the ongoing work of constructing a complete driveline for an electric road vehicle, using a flywheel as auxiliary energy storage. The flywheel energy storage system (FESS) is connected in series between the main energy storage (batteries) and the wheel motor of the vehicle, allowing the batteries to deliver power to the system in an optimized way, while at the same time making efficient use of regenerative braking. A double wound permanent magnet electric machine is used to electrically separate the two sides. In order to minimize losses, the machine has a double rotor configuration and is suspended with magnetic bearings. A bench test set-up is being constructed to investigate the properties of this system in detail. This set-up will achieve a level of power and energy close to that of a full scale system. This will allow measurements of complete drive cycles to be performed, improving the understanding of the constituting components and optimization of the complete system.