Design and Analysis of Various Shapes of Flywheel

Abstract

In present investigation, to counter the requirement of smoothing out the large oscillations in velocity during a cycle of a mechanism, a flywheel is designed, optimized and analyzed. By using optimization approach to optimize various parameters like cost, stresses, energy etc. for flywheel and to apply an approach for modification of various working parameter like efficiency, output, energy storing capacity, the results compared with existing flywheel result. Based on the dynamic functions and specifications, of the system the main features of the flywheel is initially determined, the detail design study of flywheel is done and by using any one of the optimization techniques and approach for modification, structural analysis is done. Heavy wheel attached to a rotating shaft 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. In automobile engines, the flywheel smooths out the pulses of energy provided by the combustion in the cylinders and provides energy for the compression stroke of the pistons. In power presses the actual punching, shearing, and forming are done in a fraction of the operating cycle. During the longer, non-active period, the speed of the flywheel is built up slowly by a comparatively low-powered motor. When the press is operating, most of the required energy is provided by the flywheel, heavy metal wheel attached to a drive shaft, having most of its weight concentrated at the circumference. Such a wheel resists changes in speed and helps steady the rotation of the shaft where a power source such as a piston engine exerts an uneven torque on the shaft or where the load is intermittent, as in piston pumps or punches. By slowly increasing the speed of a flywheel a small motor can store up energy that, if released in a short time, enables the motor to perform a function for which it is ordinarily too small. The flywheel was developed by James Watt in his work on the steam engine. The difficulty of casting stress-free spoked flywheels leads the modern designer to use solid web castings or welded structural steel assemblies. For large, slow-turning flywheels on heavy duty diesel engines or large mechanical presses, cast-spoked flywheels of two-piece design are standard. New optimization problems arise every day - for instance, what is the quickest path to work? Where and how congested is the road construction? Am I better off riding my bike? If so, what is the shortest path? Sometimes these problems are easily solved, but many engineering problems cannot be handled satisfactorily using traditional optimization methods. Engineering involves a wide class of problems and optimization approaches. For the machine acting a variable motion, its equivalent drive moment does not always equal to the equivalent resistant moment even during the stable status. Since its equivalent inertia of moment can not vary correspondingly to this change, the angular velocity of its equivalent component, generally the main shaft or crank, fluctuate periodically. Serving as a reservoir by storing energy during the period when the supply of energy is more than the requirement and releasing it during the period when the requirement of the energy is more than the supply, a flywheel provides an effective way to smooth out the fluctuation of speed. The efficient flywheel design should maximize the inertia of moment for minimum material used, and guarantee high reliability and long lifetime .Under such a situation and being aimed at partial mechanism system, the project is presented and worked out on the platform of PRO-E and ANSYS.