🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1992Dec17.011649.987@cmkrnl.com> jeh@cmkrnl.com writes:
>In article <1992Dec16.192456.6261@news.cs.brandeis.edu>,
> andyh@chaos.cs.brandeis.edu (Andrew J. Huang) writes:
>> <I have to admit an emotional response to this since I think that
>> flywheels have tremendous potential.>
>
>The flywheel is a great way to store mechanical energy.  However I'm not
>certain about the means for using it.  Somehow the energy must be gotten 

[...Stuff about generation of electricity deleted....]

>Maybe hydraulics?  Hydraulic "motors" have the same great torque as electrics

[...Stuff about using hydraulics to get stuff in and out of the wheel del..]

>Maybe the greatest thing about the flywheel is that, if you design the system
>right, you brake by turning the system back on itself and pumping energy back
>into the flywheel.  (This can be made to work for battery-powered electric cars

I have not followed this thread from the beggining, however I shall add
my two cents worth.   

I belive the hydraulic flywheel had been tried for temporary storage
of power reclaimed from braking.  It was tried in some busses (much
stop and go sort of thing), the problem was not in the energy transfer
but more in the flywheel concept.  When the bus tried to corner one
way, it hugged the road better than ever, but when it cornered the other
way, it tried to flip itself.  I know... use 2 counter-rotating flywheels
and this will solve that problem. It dosn't solve the problem of what
happens when something hits the flywheel and you end up with 8 parts of
it (or more) all travelling in oposite directions at about Mach 5.

I personally would like to see  large flywheel storage of energy in
vehicals, but I don't think it will happen, the flywheel is better suited
to energy storage in stationary conditions.

                                                          .....Rich
                                                          rsnider@xrtll