13 ms·
Huh, the flywheels discussed here are charged/discharged electrically. I would have assumed that part of the point of a flywheel would have been to make it mec
by Sniffnoy 4y ago
Huh, the flywheels discussed here are charged/discharged electrically. I would have assumed that part of the point of a flywheel would have been to make it mechanical rather than electrical! Is electrical more efficient? Or just easier to build?
- pifm_guy 4y agoTo slow down a car while speeding up a flywheel requires an infinitely variable gearbox. Ie. When you first start deceleration and the flywheel is stationary, you'd ideally have infinity:1 ratio. When the car is pretty much stopped, and the flywheel going fast, you'd use 1: infinity. And in between you'd use every other ratio. Such gearboxes aren't really a thing (at least not without massive caveats). The best you can do is fixed gear ratios and a clutch, or a CVT and a clutch to handle the ends of the range. Both are mechanically complex and not very efficient (a typical shift under load with a clutch wastes half the energy into heat in the clutch material). Compare to electric, where a 'gearbox' consists of software/inductors/capacitors/switches, and you can effectively have an infinite ratio (software) gearbox.
- programmer_dude 4y agoI think it is more efficient if you need power conversion i.e. gear shifting.
- saalweachter 4y agoI think it works better with having a spinning mass in a low friction environment you want to couple and uncouple with at high speeds.