1. Lightweight containment for high-energy rotating machines
- Author
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Strubhar, Joseph L., Thompson, Richard C., Pak, Tony T., Zierer, Joseph J., Beno, Joseph H., and Hayes, Richard J.
- Subjects
Pulse generators -- Equipment and supplies ,Pulse generators -- Design and construction ,Flywheels -- Design and construction ,Hypervelocity guns -- Equipment and supplies ,Hypervelocity guns -- Design and construction ,Business ,Electronics ,Electronics and electrical industries - Abstract
The University of Texas Center for Electromechanics (UT-CEM), as a member of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Flywheel Safety and Containment program, has developed a lightweight containment system for high-speed composite rotors. The containment device, consisting of a rotatable, composite structure, has been demonstrated to contain the high-energy release from a rotor burst event and is applicable to composite rotors for pulsed power applications. UT-CEM recently conducted a burst spin test of a composite flywheel inside this composite containment device at Test Devices Incorporated (TDI), Hudson, MA. The most important aspect of this design is that the flee-floating containment structure dissipates the major loads (radial, torque, and axial) encountered during the burst event, greatly reducing the loads that pass through the stator structure to its attachments. The design results in significant system-level weight savings for the entire rotating machine when compared to a system with an all-metallic containment. Of equal interest to the containment design, the experimental design and instrumentation was very challenging and resulted in significant lessons learned. This paper describes the containment system design, rotor burst test setup, instrumentation for measuring loads induced by the burst event, and a detailed explanation of the successful containment test results and conclusions. Index Terms--Containment, flywheels, measurement, mechanical energy storage, pulse power, road vehicle power systems, rotating machines protection, safety.
- Published
- 2003