UNIVERSITI KUALA LUMPUR

MALAYSIA FRANCE INSTITUTE

MECHANICAL ENGINEERING SECTION

Laboratory Experiment Sheet

ENGINEERING MECHANICS 2

FLYWHEEL EXPERIMENT

OBJECTIVE

To determine the mass moment of inertia of the flywheel (assuming frictionless bearing)

THEORY

Conservative force and potential energy

Conservative Force

If the work of a force is independent of the path and depends only on the forces initial and final
position on the path, then we can classify this force as a conservative force.

Energy

Energy is defined as the capacity for doing work. For example, if a particle is originally at rest,
then the principle of work and energy states that U1 to 2 = T2. In other work, kinetic energy is
equal to work that must be done on the particle to bring it from a state of rest to a speed V. Thus,
kinetic energy is a measure of the particles capacity to do work, which is associated with the
motion of the particle. When energy comes from the position of the particle, measured from a fixed
datum or reference plane, it is called potential energy. Thus, potential energy is a measure of the
amount of work a conservative force will do when it moves from a given position to the datum

Gravitational potential energy

If a particle is located at a distance h above the datum as shown in fig. Since particles weight W
has positive gravitational potential energy, Vg because W has the capacity of doing the positive
work when the particle is moved back down to the datum. But for this experiment, W is located at
the datum and Vg is negative since the particle move away down from the datum.

Vg = -Wh ---------- (1)

 Vg = Wh

Datum
Vg = 0

Vg = -Wh

Kinetic Energy

Rotation About a Fixed Axis G

rG

When a rigid body rotates about a fixed axis passing through point O the body has both
translational and rotational kinetic energy
1 1
= 2 G2 + 2 G2 ---------- (2)

The bodys kinetic energy may also be formulated for this case by noting that G = G so that T
= (IG + mrG2) 2. By the parallel-axis theorem, the terms inside the parentheses represent the
moment of inertia IO of the body about an axis perpendicular to the plane of motion and passing
through point O. So
1
= 2 O2 ---------- (3)

Conservation of energy

When a particle is acted upon by a system of both conservative forces and non-conservative forces,
the portion of the work done by the conservative forces can be written in terms of difference in
their potential energy. As a result, the principle of work and energy can be written

Represents the work of non-conservative forces acting on the particle. For this experiment, we
neglect all the non-conservative forces

T1 + V1 = T2 + V2 ---------- (4)
System of particles

If a system of particles is subjected only to conservative forces, then an equation can be written
for the particles. Here, the sum of the systems initial kinetic and potential energies is equal to the
sum of the systems final kinetic and potential energies.

T1 + V1 = T2 + V2 ---------- (5)

For this experiment, T1 = 0 since it is start from the rest and V1 = 0 the weight is placed at the
datum

Flywheel and weight initial position

Flywheel and weight final position

So, conservation of energy will be

0 = T2 + V2 ---------- (6)

T2 is Flywheels kinetic energy and substitute into (6)

1 1
0 = 2 G2 + 2 G2 mgh ---------- (7)

Since G = r
1 1
0 = 2 ()2 + 2 G2 mgh ---------- (8)
Flywheels Moment of Inertia

G= 2 + 2mgy / 2 ---------- (9)

From kinematic equation

= 0 + t
1
= 0 + 0t + 2 2

0 = 0 , 0 = 0 since its start from the rest,

1
= , = 2
2

Since = r
2
=

Substitute it in (9)
1
G= 2 (22 1) ---------- (10)

Torque pulley radius, r = 0.02 m

1
Theoretical mass moment of inertia = 2 f rf2

Flywheel radius, rf = 0.125 m Flywheel Mass, mf = 15.04 kg

Ring outer radius, ror = 0.125 m Ring Mass, mr = 3.75 kg
Ring inner radius, rir = 0.09 m
Disc outer radius, rod = 0.09 m Disc Mass, mr = 3.60 kg
Disc inner radius, rir = 0.02 m

ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION

1. Plot force versus mass moment of inertia for both load (theoritical and experimental) and
analyze the data.
2. Name some application by using this mechanism and explain it.
3. Discuss 2 possible source of errors (other than parallax error) and how its can effect the
result
Endorsed by :
Technical Unit Leader HOS/ PC
Sign & Stamp Sign & Stamp
Date 19th September 2016 Date 19th September 2016