US 11,962,223 B2Granted

Apparatus for supporting a flywheel on a floating vessel and methods thereof

AssigneeGrant Prideco, L.P.

InventorsYngvar Borøy, Anibal B. Teixeira, Geir Odd Bergstøl, Oddbjørn Øye

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Abstract

An apparatus for supporting a flywheel on a floating vessel includes a support for the flywheel; and a tilt sensor for measuring an angle of slope relative to the Earth, the tilt sensor being arranged to detect a change of an angle of slope of the floating vessel relative to the Earth. The apparatus further includes a driver for manoeuvring the support relative to the floating vessel, based on the measured angle of slope from the tilt sensor, wherein the driver is operable to manoeuvre the support so as to counteract a change of an angle of slope of the flywheel relative to the Earth due to the detected change of an angle of slope of the floating vessel.

Claims19

Dependent claims

An apparatus for storing and supplying electrical energy to at least one energy system on a floating vessel, the apparatus comprising:

a flywheel configured to store electrical energy from and supply electrical energy to the at least one energy system;
a support for the flywheel positioned on the floating vessel;
at least one tilt sensor for measuring an angle of slope relative to the Earth, the at least one tilt sensor being configured to detect a change of an angle of slope of the floating vessel relative to the Earth;
at least one driver coupled between the floating vessel and the support and configured to rotate the support relative to the floating vessel based on the measured angle of slope from the at least one tilt sensor;
and
at least one pivot shaft coupled between the support and the floating vessel so that the flywheel is pivotable around a rotational axis of the at least one pivot shaft, and wherein the support is configured to support the flywheel with a rotational axis of the flywheel perpendicular to the rotational axis of the at least one pivot shaft;
wherein the at least one driver is configured to rotate, in response to the detected change of an angle of slope of the floating vessel, the support about the rotational axis of the at least one pivot shaft relative to the floating vessel, and to wherein the rotation of the support by the at least one driver in response to the detected change of an angle of slope of the floating vessel reduces deviations of an orientation of the rotational axis of the flywheel from a target orientation of the rotational axis of the flywheel relative to the Earth.

4 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.