Advances in Flywheel Energy Storage

Howard Jordan, John Herbst, and Richard Hayes presented the paper, “Flywheel Energy Storage Systems and Their Applications” at the November meeting of the Small Motors and Motion Association in St. Louis. This work highlighted the advances in power electronics, composite materials and magnetic bearings that have made flywheel energy storage a viable solution for the needs of the transportation, electric utility, and aerospace industries. One of the observations highlighted in the paper is, at 15,000 revolutions per minute, the skin effect losses can be significant in the stator conductors.

For further information, please contact Howard Jordan.

Toward a Better Electricity Grid

Bob Hebner presented a talk titled, “Tomorrow’s Electricity Supply” at the 1st Annual Congress on Infrastructure Security for the Built Environment in Washington, DC, in November 2002. The talk summarized research opportunities and activities intended to provide a more reliable supply of electricity. Research into such areas as high speed computing, telecommunications, distributed generation, sensors, and controls is being combined with improvements in grid hardware. The changes made possible by this research were originally envisioned to permit a grid that was designed for less critical loads to be upgraded to permit the wider application of microprocessor-based equipment. These same changes will decrease the vulnerability of the system to natural or malicious disruptions.

For further information, contact Dr. Robert Hebner.

Changes in the Standards System

Bob Hebner presented a paper, “International Technical Standards – An Overview” at the 2002 ASME International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition in November 2002. This paper examined how changes in other areas are affecting the international standards system. The importance of standards is likely growing, but the cost of standards development is stimulating some changes in the structure of the standards setting process. The changes suggest a continuing important role for technically based standards developed by those skilled in the area. Thus, if organizations like ASME with a history of technical standards development can find an appropriate way to fund their efforts, it is likely their work will continue to be important.

For more information, contact Dr. Robert Hebner.