🚀 go-pugleaf

In <1992Dec17.170002.28389@u.washington.edu> basiji@stein.u.washington.edu (David Basiji) writes:

>carl@SOL1.GPS.CALTECH.EDU (Carl J Lydick) writes:

>The housing I've proposed is suited to these conditions.  Since we're 
>encouraging collisions between particles by containing them, much of their
>kinetic energy will be dissipated in collision-induced fractures of the 
>flywheel material. Heat is generated in the housing only in irrecoverable

As an energy disapation mechanism, fracturing is meaningless.  Assuming that
the fracturing continues down to the point where nothing larger than a few
molecules are left.  We now have a hot gas with individual particles still
moving very fast.  There is still only one way to dump the excess energy.
Heat that the containment vessel will have to absorb.  BTW, a hot gas
generally indicates high pressure, so if the containment vessel heats up
enough to soften, we could still get a blowout of very hot gas.
I would think you would want the flywheel to be made of something brittle
and the containment to not be brittle.  You want the fly wheel to shatter into
small pieces as quickly as possible, since small particles have less of a
chance to penetrate the containment.   The containment you would want to
bend but not break.

-- 
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Mark.Wilson@AtlantaGA.NCR.com