Development of the composite superconducting magnetic bearing for superconducting flywheel

Superconducting magnetic bearing for flywheel requires the characteristics such as higher stiffness, lower loss and higher stability. There are two types of superconducting magnetic bearings, one is axial gap type and another is radial gap type and the characteristics of these types are quite different. We think that the supporting system of superconducting flywheel should support the rotor at one position near the center of gravity to minimize the cooling energy loss. We propose that the bearing composed of axial gap type and radial gap type is necessary from the result of this investigation, because the characteristics about both types of bearings should be compensated each other. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.