Flywheels store energy and stabilize rotating machinery. They can be used as energy storage devices for scientific experiments or as backup power for facilities. The amount of energy stored depends on the mass and speed of rotation, with larger flywheels capable of storing more energy.
A flywheel is a simple spinning wheel used to store energy or stabilize something. The energy it stores is equal to its moment of inertia – a physical term which basically means the mass of the object times the square of its distance from the axis of rotation – times the square of its angular velocity divided by 2. Flywheels they help stabilize drive shafts subject to alternating pressures, such as piston engines or piston pumps. The stabilizing effect comes from the fact that the flywheel resists changes in its rotational speed.
Flywheels are used as energy storage devices for high-power scientific experiments that would produce an unacceptable power surge if it removed energy from the electrical grid. Such flywheel batteries could operate in a vacuum, to prevent energy loss due to air friction, and would be periodically re-accelerated to compensate for rotational speed lost due to energy dissipation from heat and vibration. A good flywheel design will dissipate as little heat and vibration as possible while retaining energy for the target application.
A flywheel stores different amounts of energy depending on its mass and speed of rotation. For example, a bicycle wheel has a mass of about 1 kg (2.2 pounds), a diameter of about 70 cm (28 inches), and a rotational speed of about 150 rpm (revolutions per minute). This adds up to a stored energy of 15 J (joules). Next, consider a wheel on a train moving at 60 km/h (37 mph), with a mass of 942 kg (2.076 lb), a diameter of 1 m (3.3 ft), and a rotational speed of 318 rpm. min. This flywheel would have a rotational energy of about 64 kJ (kilojoules), about 43,000 times greater than the bicycle wheel.
Flywheel batteries dedicated to energy storage have much larger energies than both of these earlier examples, mainly due to extreme rotational speeds. An example made by an Ottawa flywheel company boasts a mass of 100 kg (220 lbs), a diameter of 60 cm (27 inches), and a rotational speed of 20,000 rpm. This flywheel battery can store approximately 10 MJ (megajoules), enough to light 100 100-watt light bulbs for 1,000 seconds. This flywheel battery design isn’t much bigger than a refrigerator. An even larger flywheel, of the type used as an electrical power reserve, can hold 100 MJ of power. These types of flywheels can be used by casinos, hospitals, data centers or in industry to maintain power in the event of input failure or fluctuations.
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