![flywheel in ic engines flywheel in ic engines](https://www.engineersedge.com/mechanics_machines/images/flywheelfeatures.jpg)
How heavy should the flywheel be? Just heavy enough to keep the engine turning over between power strokes - no heavier is the thumb rule. However, designs and multiple cylinders are used in clever firing orders to smooth the revs between strokes as much as possible. In effect, the inertia of the flywheel powers the other three strokes.īut if it rotates on inertia, the engine has to slow down until a power stroke arrives again, right? Yes, the engine does slow down between power strokes, but the inertial flywheel movement evens out the impact of the picking up and dropping of revs - an undesirable effect. This is the energy that the piston uses to go back up and the crankshaft uses to open and close valves, drive ancillaries like the alternator and so forth. When the power stroke is over, its weight gives it the required inertia to continue to rotate. The flywheel soaks up some of the energy from the power stroke as in it starts to rotate faster. So why is it that the engine doesn't make your car feel like a speed-up version of our bicycle - jerking forward and slowing down alternately? The smoothness comes partly from something called a flywheel, which is basically a heavy metal disc connected to the crankshaft.Īs you can imagine that it makes the crankshaft heavy and that sounds like a bad thing to do, right? But the flywheel is actually critical to the operation of an internal combustion engine. The engine only produces useful torque on the power stroke and basically consumes power on the other three (in opening and closing valves, making the piston go back up and so on and so forth). But all internal combustion engines actually operate this way. The bicycle would jerk forward when you're applying pressure and then slow down when you are not. (d) If system may tolerate considerably higher speed fluctuations, the size of flywheel shall also be smaller for similar value of Δ E.When you are on a bicycle, imagine using only your left foot, pushing down on the pedal with no force at all the rest of the time. (c) For high speed engines, the size of flywheel shall be considerably smaller because of lower value of I needed. (b) Also for slow speed engine the flywheel needed is larger in size due to high value of I required. Thus, single cylinder 4-stroke engine will needs larger flywheel as compared to the multi-cylinder engine. The value of k s is restricted by the practical considerations. (a) The flywheel shall be heavy and of big size if Δ E is large.
![flywheel in ic engines flywheel in ic engines](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/flywheelimp-180302095450/95/flywheel-4-638.jpg)
Here 'w' is average speed given by following formulaĬonsider V 1 be the maximum tangential velocity at the radius of gyration and V 2 be the minimum tangential velocity at the radius of gyration
![flywheel in ic engines flywheel in ic engines](https://img.yumpu.com/5706108/1/500x640/arcusaflex-flywheel-couplings-maryland-metrics.jpg)
Consider ω 1 be the maximum angular speed and ω 2 be the minimum angular speed.Ĭonsider I be the mass moment of inertia of the flywheel.īy neglecting mass moment of inertia of the other rotating parts that are negligible in comparison of mass moment of inertia of the flywheel. Thus, it drops of fluctuation in the speed in the cycle. The function of the flywheel is to store up excess energy throughout period of harvestation and it supplies energy throughout period of starvation.
![flywheel in ic engines flywheel in ic engines](https://armyordnance.tpub.com/OD1619/OD16190016im.jpg)
Mass Moment of Inertia of Flywheel for an IC Engine: