It is important that the electricity used in the AC Grid be frequency regulated to ensure it is safe, reliable, and efficient.  Flywheels offer a robust, reliable, and 'green' method for responding to the surpluses and deficiets of the existing AC Grid.  Flywheel energy is stored as kinetic energy through a 'spin-up' processes and can instantaneously respond to demands.  In the future grid, novel 'green' energies are expected to add to the variances noted previously.  In order to store more energy, flywheels will have to spin faster.  This creates a need for improved flywheel rim materials.  Flywheel rims typically consist of three components (C-fiber, glass-fiber, and a resin).  In this effort, we have designed a model system that allows us to explore variations in the flywheel composition.  The effect of ceramic nanomaterials on the strength of a variety of resins has been investigated and full details of the resulting properties will be presented. Sandia National Laboratories is a multi-program laboratory managed and operated by Sandia Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Lockheed Martin Corporation, for the U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration under contract DE-AC04-94AL85000.

Nanocomposite materials for improved flywheel rim materials for frequency regulation of the AC grid

243rd National Meeting (2012)

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