Improved Strength Materials and Manufacturing Through Nanomaterial Integration for High-Energy Capacity Filament Wound Composite Flywheels
Navy SBIR FY2015.2


Sol No.: Navy SBIR FY2015.2
Topic No.: N152-118
Topic Title: Improved Strength Materials and Manufacturing Through Nanomaterial Integration for High-Energy Capacity Filament Wound Composite Flywheels
Proposal No.: N152-118-0700
Firm: San Diego Composites, Inc.
9220 Activity Road
San Diego, California 92126
Contact: Jeremy Senne
Phone: (858) 751-0480
Web Site: http://www.sdcomposites.com
Abstract: The key issue facing the mass use of weaponized railguns and lasers is the ability to provide sufficient sustained power to the weapons. Multiple megawatts of power are required to fire a railgun at full force, which can put a heavy strain on a given ship's onboard power generation systems. One of the most promising enabling technologies for power storage is high-energy storage flywheel systems. San Diego Composites, Inc. (SDC) proposes to improve the interlaminar z-strength of a filament wound composite flywheel (FWCF) through SDC�s technology for Carbon Nanotubes (CNT) alignment, and to improve the hoop strength of a FWCF by winding with high strength nano-based materials. The improvements to the material strengths will enable higher flywheel rotary speeds and thus higher energy capacity.
Benefits: �10-20% Higher energy storage capacity for flywheels enables railguns and other high power impulse systems �FWCF rotor layup and design for higher level MW power support for railgun firings � Characterization of the property improvement seen through infusion z-aligned CNTs in a laminate � Characterization of the property improvement obtained through integrating continuous unidirectional CNT sheets within a laminate �Tooling designs for z-aligning CNTs into a FWCF through resin infusion �Provides TRL/MRL 6 FWCF rotor design with integrated CNTs to improve strength properties for evaluation by General Atomics (at end of Phase II) The main commercial application for this is high impulse power system support for GA's flywheels. GA has also directed SDC toward looking at this technology for other filament wound part applications including sabots for the railgun, and square tube pressure vessels. SDC has also considered this technology for the Navy VLS canister square tube pressure vessel to address z-strength issues in the corners due to the 103 psi pressure requirement.

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