INCREASING HYDRAULIC ENERGY STORAGE CAPACITY: FLYWHEEL-ACCUMULATOR

Authors

  • James D. Van de Ven Department of Mechanical Engineering, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, 100 Institute Rd., Worcester, MA 01609, USA

Keywords:

hydraulic energy storage, flywheel, accumulator, hydraulic hybrid vehicle

Abstract

The energy storage density of hydraulic accumulators is significantly lower than energy storage devices in other energy domains. As a novel solution to improve the energy density of hydraulic systems, a flywheel-accumulator is presented. Energy is stored in the flywheel-accumulator by compressing a gas, increasing the moment of inertia of the flywheel by adding hydraulic fluid, and by increasing the angular velocity of the flywheel. Through a numerical model of the energy flows in the system, the energy storage of the flywheel-accumulator was demonstrated to be approximately 10 times greater than a conventional accumulator. Furthermore, the flywheel-accumulator allows the hydraulic system pressure to be independent of the quantity of energy stored. The integral flywheel-accumulator presents numerous future research challenges, yet offers the potential to transform and enable numerous applications including plug-in hydraulic hybrid vehicles.

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Author Biography

James D. Van de Ven, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, 100 Institute Rd., Worcester, MA 01609, USA

James D. Van de Ven Is an Assistant Professor at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in the Department of Mechanical Engineering where he operates the Mechanical Energy and Power Systems (MEPS) Laboratory. Dr. Van de Ven received his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Minnesota in 2006. Prior to joining WPI in 2007, Professor Van de Ven was a Post-Doctoral Research Associate at the University of Minnesota in the NSF sponsored Engineering Research Center for Compact and Efficient Fluid Power. Dr. Van de Ven’s research interests are in hybrid vehicles, efficient energy conversion, energy storage, fluid power, kinematics, and machine design.

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Published

2009-11-01

How to Cite

Van de Ven, J. D. (2009). INCREASING HYDRAULIC ENERGY STORAGE CAPACITY: FLYWHEEL-ACCUMULATOR. International Journal of Fluid Power, 10(3), 41–50. Retrieved from https://journals.riverpublishers.com/index.php/IJFP/article/view/494

Issue

2009: Vol 10 Iss 3

Section

Original Article