What is a flywheel for kids?

A flywheel is a heavy disk or wheel that is attached to a rotating shaft. Flywheels are used for storage of kinetic energy. The momentum of the flywheel causes it to not change its rotational speed easily. Because of this, flywheels help to keep the shaft rotating at the same speed.

What is the main function of a flywheel in an engine?

flywheel, heavy wheel attached to a rotating shaft so as to smooth out delivery of power from a motor to a machine. The inertia of the flywheel opposes and moderates fluctuations in the speed of the engine and stores the excess energy for intermittent use.

What are the 2 main purposes of the flywheel in a small gas engine?

The flywheel stores energy when torque is applied by the energy source, and it releases stored energy when the energy source is not applying torque.

Where is flywheel used?

Common uses of a flywheel include: Smoothing the power output of an energy source. For example, flywheels are used in reciprocating engines because the active torque from the individual pistons is intermittent. Energy storage systems.

What is the advantage of a flywheel?

The advantages of flywheel energy storage systems are high efficiency, high energy and power density, and long life. On the other hand, flywheels are more expensive and require more space than batteries and fuel cells. There are also some safety concerns about flywheels rotating at high speeds.

What is crankshaft purpose?

The crankshaft is essentially the backbone of the internal combustion engine. The crankshaft is responsible for the proper operation of the engine and converting a linear motion to a rotational motion.

How does a flywheel work?

A flywheel accelerates as energy is absorbed and decelerates when energy is delivered back to the system. The stored energy is the sum of the kinetic energy of the individual mass elements make up the flywheel. In order to optimize the energy-to-mass ratio, a flywheel needs to spin at its maximum possible speed ( Freris, 1990 ).

How do you increase the amount of energy stored in a flywheel?

The amount of energy stored in a flywheel is proportional to the square of its rotational speed and its mass. The way to change a flywheel’s stored energy without changing its mass is by increasing or decreasing its rotational speed.

How does specific tensile strength affect a flywheel?

For a given flywheel design, the kinetic energy is proportional to the ratio of the hoop stress to the material density and to the mass: could be called the specific tensile strength. The flywheel material with the highest specific tensile strength will yield the highest energy storage per unit mass.

Who invented the flywheel in the Industrial Revolution?

In the Industrial Revolution, James Watt contributed to the development of the flywheel in the steam engine, and his contemporary James Pickard used a flywheel combined with a crank to transform reciprocating motion into rotary motion. A flywheel with variable moment of inertia, conceived by Leonardo da Vinci.