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Materials
& Design
Materials and Design 29 (2008) 514–518
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Technical Report

Flywheel geometry design for improved energy storage using

finite element analysis
Mehmet Ali Arslan *

Department of Design and Manufacturing Engineering, Gebze Institute of Technology, P.K. 141, 41400 Gebze, Kocaeli, Turkey

Received 25 July 2006; accepted 12 January 2007

Available online 31 January 2007

Abstract

Flywheels serve as kinetic energy storage and retrieval devices with the ability to deliver high output power at high rotational speeds as
being one of the emerging energy storage technologies available today in various stages of development, especially in advanced techno-
logical areas, i.e., spacecrafts. Today, most of the research efforts are being spent on improving energy storage capability of flywheels to
deliver high power at transfer times, lasting longer than conventional battery powered technologies. Mainly, the performance of a fly-
wheel can be attributed to three factors, i.e., material strength, geometry (cross-section) and rotational speed. While material strength
directly determines kinetic energy level that could be produced safely combined (coupled) with rotor speed, this study solely focuses
on exploring the effects of flywheel geometry on its energy storage/deliver capability per unit mass, further defined as Specific Energy.
Proposed chain of finite element analysis and optimization procedure results show that smart design of flywheel geometry could both
have a significant effect on the Specific Energy performance and reduce the operational loads exerted on the shaft/bearings due to
reduced mass at high rotational speeds. This paper specifically studies the most common six different geometries (i.e., straight/concave
or convex shaped 2D cross-sections) and ranks according to their energy storage performance using the proposed procedure.
Ó 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction trol torques and momentum storage capability for space-

Mission critical technology programs are recently
focused on storing energy more efficiently using flywheel
than rechargeable chemical batteries while also providing
some control advantages. Flywheel is essentially a simple
device for storing energy in a rotating mass has been
known for centuries [1]. It is only since the development
of high-strength materials and magnetic bearings [2] that
this technology is gaining a lot more attention. Exploration
of high-strength materials allows designers to reach high
operating speeds, yielding more kinetic energy. Using mag-
netic bearings make it possible to reach high operating
speeds providing cleaner, faster and more efficient bearing
equipment at extreme temperatures. Recently designed fly-
wheels could offer orders of magnitude increases in both
performance and service life [3–5], in addition, large con-
*
Tel.: +90 262 605 1810; fax: +90 262 653 0673.
E-mail address: mehmet.arslan@gyte.edu.tr
craft, launch vehicles, aircraft power systems and power
supplies [6–8].
The flywheel system mainly consists of flywheel rotor,
motor/generator, magnetic bearings, housing and power
transformation electronic system [9]. In the development
of the flywheel, current researches have focused on increas-
ing the performance while meeting the safety consider-
ations, i.e., material, housing and bearing failures.
Investigation of energy storage and failure considerations
starts with the calculation of kinetic energy.
The kinetic energy stored in a rotating mass is given as,
1
Ek ¼ Ix2 ½J ð1Þ
2
where I is the mass moment of inertia and x is the angular
velocity. Mass moment of inertia is obtained by the mass
and geometry of the flywheel and given as,
Z
I ¼ x2 dmx ½kg m2  ð2Þ

0261-3069/$ - see front matter Ó 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.matdes.2007.01.020
 M.A. Arslan / Materials and Design 29 (2008) 514–518 515

where x is the distance from rotational axis to the differen- Considering the previous discussions, the direct contri-
tial mass dmx. For solid cylindrical disk, I is given as, bution of both material strength and rotational speed to
1 the energy level stored is very clear. However, it might
I ¼ mr2 ½kg m2  ð3Þ not be very easy to quantify the effect of the geometry. This
2
study proposes a finite element analysis based approach to
where m is the mass and r the radius of the flywheel. Spe-
assess the maximum stress levels of the flywheel under the
cific energy Ek,m is obtained by dividing Ek by the mass
operating conditions and makes sure that the safety (i.e.,
to give:
allowable stress) requirements are met. In the following
1 section the proposed finite element analysis based geometry
Ek;m ¼ r2 x2 ½J=J kg ð4Þ
4 design of a flywheel is both introduced and demonstrated
If Ek, is multiplied by the mass density q of the flywheel the on example design problems.
energy density is obtained:
2. Flywheel design and analysis procedure
1
Ek;v ¼ qr2 x2 ½J=m 3
ð5Þ
4 In the literature, for simple flywheel configurations the
In this context, the design challenge is to maximize either maximum energy density is presented [11], in the form of
Ek,m or Ek,v, while satisfying the stress constraints. Tangen- shape factor k, which is essentially dependent on the
tial and radial stresses are given for cylindrical flywheel moment of inertia of the flywheel geometry [12]. Shape fac-
geometry [10] where the outside radius (ro) is assumed to tor ranges approximately between 0.3 and 1, the greater k
be large compared to the flywheel thickness (t) ro P 10t; means better performance, but in practice it is not possible
   to have k exactly equal to 1. At the same time for compli-
2 3þt 2 2 r2i r2o 1 þ 3t 2
rt ¼ qx ri þ ro þ 2  r ð6Þ cated geometries, assessment of this factor and total energy
8 r 3þt
   remains elusive, therefore proposed finite element based
3þt r2 r2 analysis of such geometries could directly help determine
rr ¼ qx2 r2i þ r2o  i 2 o  r2 ð7Þ
8 r the maximum achievable energy density. This approach
After careful examination of these formulations, it could be consists of four steps as presented in Fig. 2:
observed that mainly three fully-coupled design factors
have significant effect in the overall performance of fly-  Step 1, a fully parametric model of the flywheel is cre-
wheels as depicted in Fig. 1. ated to be inputted to ANSYS [13] (a finite element
modeling and analysis software) to form the desired
 Material strength; basically stronger materials could geometry.
undertake large operating stresses, hence could be run  Step 2, model obtained in Step 1 is analyzed using
at high rotational speeds allowing to store more energy. ANSYS/LSDYNA [13], an explicit code, to obtain the
 Rotational speed; directly controls the energy stored, stored kinetic energy and mass of the flywheel.
higher speeds desired for more energy storage, but high  Step 3, the same model is also analyzed using ANSYS,
speeds assert excessive loads on both flywheel and bear- an implicit code, and overall stress distribution of the
ings during the shaft design. flywheel obtained and critical stresses and regions
 Geometry; controls the Specific Energy, in other words, identified.
kinetic energy storage capability of the flywheel. Any  Finally, using kinetic energy, mass and maximum stress
optimization effort of flywheel cross-section may con- of the flywheel obtained in Steps 1–3, an optimization is
tribute substantial improvements in kinetic energy stor- performed to come up with the maximum obtainable
age capability thus reducing both overall shaft/bearing Specific Energy level, meantime making sure that the
loads and material failure occurences. maximum equivalent stress is less than the maximum

Fig. 1. Fully-coupled flywheel operating characteristics. Fig. 2. Finite element analysis procedure flow chart.
516 M.A. Arslan / Materials and Design 29 (2008) 514–518

allowable yield stress by adjusting rotational speed
(rpm) of the flywheel. Note that the higher rpm level
means the better kinetic energy level could be reached.
2.1. Finite element analysis modeling
Proposed fully parametric model shown in Fig. 3, where
t is the thickness (t = 5.08 cm or 200 ) and h is the radius of
the flywheel (h = 14.605 cm or 5.7500 ). Two dimensional
(2D) flywheel geometry is constructed with the total of 10
(X, Y) coordinates by varying coordinates 1 to 8 only in
X direction to be less/equal to h. Points a, b and c are held
fixed for all geometries except for annular solid disk geom-
etry (Case 2). Points b through 8 are fit a spline to form a
single line. Y axis shows the axis of rotation according to
the right hand rule. Although many materials with better
strength and low density are available in the market, to
serve the purpos of this study, an example material proper-
ties of AISI 1006 Steel (cold drawn), with modulus of elas-
ticity of E = 205 GPa, density of q = 7.872 g/cc, Poisson’s
ratio of t = 0.29 and yield stress of rY = 290 MPa, is
adapted in all cases.
In Step 1, six different flywheel geometries are con-
structed, as these design points shown in Table 1 and
geometries corresponding to these points are also presented
in Fig. 4. In step 2, a 360° flywheel volume created using
the geometry obtained in step 1. This volume is meshed
with SOLID164, eight-node hex elements, and displace-
ment boundary conditions are applied at the center nodes
to prevent rigid body motion in both axial and radial direc-
tion. Finally, the finite element model is loaded with rota-
tional loads and analyzed. After post processing the results,
both kinetic energy and mass of the flywheel are obtained.
Similarly, in step 3, a 2D axi-symmetric model obtained in
step 1, is meshed with PLANE42, four-node shell elements,
to obtain the maximum equivalent stress and its location
with higher level of accuracy. Displacement boundary con-
dition is applied to a node at the origin to hold the model in
axial direction, and analysis is performed. After post pro-
cessing the results, the maximum and minimum equivalent
stress levels and their locations are spotted. Finally, in step
4, using kinetic energy, mass and maximum stress of the
flywheel obtained in steps 1–3, a simple optimization is per-
formed to come up with the better Specific Energy level by
adjusting the rotational speed and making sure that maxi-
mum equivalent stress is less than the maximum yield stress
of the material of interest (i.e., Maximum Stress Criterion).

2.2. Results and discussions

Although there is an infinite number of a possibility for

Fig. 3. 2D and 3/4 view of solid flywheel model (case 1).
2D cross-section selection, the procedure outlined in the
previous section, applied to first, solid disk as base 2D
geometry. Next, the annular disk geometry is chosen with
an inner radius of 0.1016 m. In the test runs that are not
presented in this paper, using various inner diameter sizes
performed worst in terms of high stress levels, even at lower
rotational speeds. Therefore only single configuration is
documented here. Third and fourth cross-sections are cho-
sen out of concave and triangular shaped functions, respec-
tively. Final two cross-sections are selected to be
composition of convex lines and the later one having a
small solid circle added on the outer diameter to improve

Table 1
Tabulated X-coordinates for all cases
X dist. Case 1 Case 2 Case 3 Case 4 Case 5 Case 6*
b Fixed Fixed Fixed Fixed Fixed Fixed
1 0.14605 0.14605 0.144247 0.129822 0.09000 0.09000
2 0.14605 0.14605 0.138838 0.113594 0.05000 0.05000
3 0.14605 0.14605 0.129822 0.097367 0.03000 0.03000
4 0.14605 0.14605 0.117201 0.081139 0.01500 0.01500
5 0.14605 0.14605 0.100973 0.064911 0.00600 0.00600
6 0.14605 0.14605 0.081139 0.048683 0.00500 0.00500
7 0.14605 0.14605 0.057699 0.032456 0.00500 0.00500
8 0.14605 0.14605 0.030652 0.016228 0.00500 0.00500
c Fixed 0.1016 Fixed Fixed Fixed Fixed
a Fixed 0.1016 Fixed Fixed Fixed Fixed
*
Same geometry as in Case 5 with half circle added at the top.
 M.A. Arslan / Materials and Design 29 (2008) 514–518 517

Fig. 4. Geometry of flywheel configurations given in Table 1 (case 1–case 6).

the energy storing capability of the disk in Case 5. Enough After the successful application of proposed procedure
care should be taken here to avoid overstressing the disk outlined in the previous section, all four steps are executed
while trying to improve its performance. and equivalent stress distribution contours are obtained for

Fig. 5. Equivalent stress distributions for case 1–case 6.

518 M.A. Arslan / Materials and Design 29 (2008) 514–518

Table 2
Comparison of FEA results for all cases
Case 1 Case 2 Case 3 Case 4 Case 5 Case 6
Max. rotational speed (rpm) 19325 13140 23860 27220 31560 29900
Mass (kg) 26.798 13.8296 16.0264 10.035 3.2926 3.5202
Kinetic energy (J) 582,180 207,922 403,198 256,115 103,772 113,758
Max. reqv = rY (MPa) 290 290 290 290 290 290
Ek/mass (kJ/kg) 21.7248 15.03 25.1584 25.521 31.517 32.316
Ek/mass (W-h/kg) 6.038 4.175 6.988 7.089 8.755 8.977
Best performance rank 5 6 (worst) 4 3 2 1 (best)

all six geometries. These results are shown in Fig. 5 and
corresponding entities i.e., Kinetic Energy, mass and max-
imum equivalent stress obtained in step 2 and 3, are also
presented in Table 2. The maximum stress criterion is used
as failure criterion assuming that stress vary only in the
elastic region (i.e., linear isotropic material). This implies
that after the optimization in step 4, maximum allowable
Equivalent stresses could be as high as (red colored area),
rY = 290 MPa, for AISI 1006 Steel (cold drawn, even
material). Minimum Equivalent stresses are calculated to
be in the range of 120–200 MPa, therefore they are consid-
ered to be within the safe stress interval. For cases 1
through 4, maximum equivalent stresses occur near or
close to center of the disk, but for case 5 and 6, max stress
region moves toward the middle of the disk while also
maintaining high stress areas close to the center.
Examining the results shows that using the annular solid
disk flywheel yields the lowest Specific Energy performance
no matter what the inner hole radius is chosen. Solid disk
performs better than the annular disk but intuitively high-
est shaft load is expected since the flywheel mass in this case
is the largest. By adopting simple modifications to the
geometry, flywheel specific energy performance could be
improved as demonstrated in Case 3 through 5, especially
in Case 5 performance of the flywheel performs 50% better
than Case 2. One more thing to note that, Case 5 cross-sec-
tion also exerts fewer shafts load than Case 1 through 4,
since its mass is the smallest. Case 5 geometry is further
improved by the addition of small semi-circle at the tip
of the geometry to create more uniform stressed geometry
towards to the tip of the flywheel than Case 5. This modi-
fication led to an improvement in the specific energy per-
formance around 3% better than Case 5. Although this
improvement is to be thought small, it still could be crucial
for mission critical operations, which require long lasting
service life and efficiency.
3. Conclusions
In this design of flywheels, there is still room for
research, especially when the performance is the primary
objective. The operating conditions impose quite narrow
margin of energy storing limitations, even slim amount of
improvements may contribute in the overall success. This
study clearly depicts the importance of the flywheel geom-
etry design selection and its contribution in the energy stor-
age performance. This contribution is demonstrated on
example cross-sections using both proposed chain of finite
element analysis and optimization procedure. Overall, the
problem objective is formulated in terms of Specific Energy
value and its maximization through the selection of the best
geometry among the predetermined six cross-sections.
Using the available technology at hand, we could very well
make fast but crucial improvements in the advanced
research areas requiring flywheel utilization, where engi-
neers are frequently confronted with the limitations on
magnetic bearing load carrying capacity, size limitations
and efficiency.
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