Test rig for high speed electromechanical flywheels in Sub Saharan Africa

This paper presents a test rig designed at the University of Cape Town to evaluate the performance of a high speed electromechanical flywheel for energy storage. The electromechanical flywheel is specifically designed to enhance rural electrification through improving the energy storage component in solar home systems. A safe, flexible and low vibration test rig has been designed. Modal analysis using an FE package ANSYS was used to validate the low vibrations at high speed rotation. Special attention was given to the alignment issues and this was done to avoid imbalance in the rig. The rig has the ability to test up to 40,000 rpm flywheel with maximum diameter of 0.55 m as is. With changes in the bearings, much faster flywheels can be tested. In addition, the rig was built to ensure testing under various operating environments. A thermal model was developed for the rig and simulated with analytical and FE packages. Sensors are installed in the containment to monitor performance of flywheel system.