SVILUPPO, PROGETTAZIONE E REALIZZAZIONE DI UN SISTEMA DI ACCUMULO A VOLANO AD ALTA VELOCITA’ PER VEICOLI ELETTRICI

This research thesis regards the development, design and implementation of a Flywheel Energy Storage System (FESS) prototype. In particular, the proposed FESS is characterized by high specific energy and power, which make it particularly suitable for electric and hybrid electric vehicles, especially for "Heavy Duty" applications. The main feature of the proposed system is the integration between the Permanent Magnet Synchronous Machine (PMSM) and the flywheel, which allows weight and size optimization. Thus, the flywheel and the PMSM have been designed synergistically by both a theoretical approach and an extensive finite elements analysis. In addition, the performance analysis of the proposed system has been performed, especially regarding the evaluation of the self-discharge rate, the efficiency map and the efficiency of both charging and discharging processes. Consequently, the lumped parameters of the equivalent electrical circuit of the PMSM have been synthesized and the PMSM operating region has been defined by introducing a suitable constraint management. Therefore, different FESS charge and discharge processes has been simulated in the Matlab-Simulink environment and a prototype has been manufactured in order to validate the design process presented in this work.