A review of critical issues in the design of lightweight flywheel rotors with composite materials

Composite materials are widely used to build high-performance flywheels due to their high material strength and low mass density. The high degrees of freedom in material selection, design, and manufacturing techniques lead to a variety of rotor structures. This paper presents the characteristics of different composite rotors and the critical considerations in terms of designing, manufacturing, and testing them. The introduction starts with the limitations of a single filament-wound composite rim. Then, various rotor structures are presented as well as the critical issues regarding the composite rim design, rim-shaft connection, and rotor failure in order to make safe design recommendations. The aim is to summarize the current techniques and provide references for further developments.