🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1hnnrdINNnna@gap.caltech.edu> carl@SOL1.GPS.CALTECH.EDU writes:
>In article <1992Dec22.204130.18133@enterprise.rdd.lmsc.lockheed.com>, () writes:
>=Obviously this fluff created by a failed flywheel is not exactly safe.  But
>=you contain this fluff inside another carbon carbon shell such that the
>=expanding hot fluff makes more fluff until the energy is such that it can
>=be contained by a container.  The object is not to stop the flywheel failure
>=at any given point, but to slow it down and cause it to loose energy.  
>
>Yup.  Now, since someone has calculated that the flywheel is storing enough
>energy to VAPORIZE 40 kilograms of iron, just how big is your containment
>system going to be?  Will there be room for people in the car?

Hmmm ... an interesting question arises from this oft' posted phrase
'VAPORIZE 40 kilograms of iron' ...  Since this is only 88 lbs of
stuff (and my car weighs about 2000lbs) it isn't THAT much of a 
weight penalty ...  So just how much of a very high heat of vaporization
substance would it take to absorbe the heat as phase change?  Say, for
example, water?  (Or whatever is even better suited...).  If one could
wrap the flywheel in a 200 lb water jacket and still be lighter than
a lead/acid battery pack, it might still be 'reasonable' ...

Now, getting all that KE dumped evenly into the water jacket could be
quite a trick ;-) and will be left as an excersize for the reader ;-) ;-)

-- 

E. Michael Smith  ems@apple.COM

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