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Steven @ May 8th 2008 4:02PM
Awesome. I just wonder about the inertial side effect of a spinning gyroscope in a car. The vehicles probably won't be as eager to change directions.
Bungle @ May 8th 2008 4:07PM
Actually, if spinning in the right direction, I would think that this could have a mild stabilizing effect. I doubt that these small flywheels would really make a huge difference, though.
zoiks @ May 8th 2008 4:14PM
I agree that the gyroscope will add stability, but from the vantage of a driver, it will feel quite destabilizing because his own inputs will not correspond to the motions of the car. And if it is an 80hp flywheel, then there is plenty of energy in there to influence the car.
I'm not disagreeing, but just playing devils advocate for the sake of discussion
naggs @ May 8th 2008 4:18PM
guys, that is exactally his point. it will add stability, which is bad. watch an f1 race and look how quickly the cars have to change direction.
they go to a lot of trouble to minimize the amount of traction it takes to turn the cars, they have to be twitchy to get around corners at those speeds.
the gyroscopic effect created by the tires and powertrain are already very significant and more will be something the engineers have to keep in mind with the new cars.
havoc @ May 8th 2008 4:20PM
i think, based on the orientation, it should provide no more instability than say a large turbo
nataku83 @ May 8th 2008 4:28PM
The resultant torque from a flywheel is the cross product (perpendicular to) the angular momentum vector (axis on which the flywheel spins) and the applied torque (axis about which the car is turning - this is essentially up and down). If you align the two, everything is fine, there won't be noticeable effects from a simplified 2d turn, however going around a banked turn would cause the car to dive or lift (depending on the direction of the flywheel or the direction of the body roll). Fortunately, you generally have pretty minimal roll angles and they're usually not applied quickly. Aligning the flywheel in a different direction would cause severe pitching or rolling moments to be applied to the car when going around a turn - not a good thing.
Also, I hate to think of the safety issues associated with a car getting into an accident and a 10 pound flywheel spinning at 65,000 rpm suddenly being exposed to the atmosphere, debris and the people involved. I'm sure these specs would be different for a commercially available vehicle, but the system only works if the flywheel is storing a large amount of energy. Vacuums are also difficult to maintain, and materials behave strangely in them (outgassing is a major problem, and aerospace grade materials that would be necessary for lubricating bearings, etc.. are very expensive).
It sounds like it might be a promising idea, but there are certainly a lot of challenges involved.
thesawzall @ May 8th 2008 4:46PM
Couldn't it be counteracted by an opposite rotating twin? It would work just like a counter-rotating prop or helicopter rotor. Of course that would increase complexity and likely double the failure rate.
KDM @ May 9th 2008 12:47AM
More than likely these flywheels are not monolithic. They are usually wound carbon fiber and some sort of epoxy. They don't fail explosively they kinda unravel and turn into a pile of hot fluff.
Pete @ May 9th 2008 1:21PM
How about if the flywheel (taking the gyro analogy further) could be manipulated along with the steering wheels to actually "enhance" stability through turns/ change direction, rather than "inhibit" stability/ resist change in direction? It seems to me that this is the perfect example of turning lemons into lemonade...