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Old 01-18-2008, 07:15 PM   #11 (permalink)
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This is the technology that has been around for the past 15 years... The problem with regenerative braking is that you cant store up that much kinetic energy into a traditional battery or capacitor... so the flywheel was attempted because it acts much like a capacitor. it is able to store a certain amount of kinetic energy to either be put back into the transmission or as they are using it.. to recharge batteries and run the Motor. You could do the same thing with a spring like in those kids toys that you get with a happy meal that you crank up. This is very promising technology and has been used on everything from submarines to spaceships. However in a fast moving car there are some drawbacks to having a flywheel...

1. The larger the "charge" you want to hold the more mass it has to be made of... (flywheels are typically very massive rotors in a vacuum that have very efficient bearings.) (also by the way this is different from the flywheel in your typical car)
2. A large spinning mass acts like a gyroscope and trys to resist inertial changes... which makes them great in satellites and locomotives but not so hot in a car when trying to turn!
3. If you have to convert that kinetic energy into electrical you still have to hook it up to a motor...

I had worked on developing one of these when I was very young and didnt know any better... my plan was to just spin it up when the brakes were being applied and then let the flywheel re-engage the transmission when accelerating... This is really great for start and stop traffic or slowing down right before making a turn. However you basically have to make a transmission that interfaces between your ICE and the flywheel... I tried using a clutch between the transmission and the flywheel and it just didn't work out well but now with microprocessors that could match up dogteeth in a transmission this might be do-able. or with the new synergy transmissions that the hybids now are using.. which are pretty incredible.

Brian

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