Re: Now the Bay Area rolling blackouts begin...

From: Adrian Tymes (wingcat@pacbell.net)
Date: Thu Jan 18 2001 - 21:51:32 MST


Chuck Kuecker wrote:
> At 11:01 AM 1/18/01 -0500, you wrote:
> >I was thinking the flywheel could have six counterrotating smaller wheels
> >around
> >it. So, when power is added, the the main flywheel is accelerated in one
> >direction
> >and the support flywheels the other direction. So, if there a power
> >outage, power
> >is drawn from all of them at once, providing smooth transition and power
> >output.
> >Also, if the flywheel was levitating in its vacuum above the
> >superconductor, then
> >power could be drawn directly to slow it to prevent the flywheel from graxing
> >anything at a high rate of speed.
> >
> >Your grenage sounds like the weapon in James Bond where the guy has a
> >sawblade on a
> >whip. Another example from RPG's is the shuriken cannon, where discs of high
> >strength and edge sharpness are spun to a high speed and launched using
> >electromagnetic force.
> >
> >If the battery housing was moved, for example, without some kind of
> >compensation,
> >then the moving parts might contact, which is an issue. There might be
> >some kind
> >of ablative material on the normally distant surfaces. That would be another
> >situation for the autoshutdown with the counterrotating wheels.
> >
> >Ross
>
> Why not two counterrotating wheels? Simpler mechanically...and as long as
> you equalize speeds, no gyroscopic effects to worry about.

And if you put the two counterrotating wheels on a mount that could
spin in any direction (I forget the name for this - three circles
where the mount between one circle and the next, or between the
outermost circle and the outside world, allows spinning in one of the
three spin axis), then that would insure against any manufacturing
defects that did introduce gyroscopic effects, and possibly allow the
wheels to be moved. Though you might have to put each wheel on its own
mount, since the wheels might want to twist in opposite directions in
reaction to their mount moving.

Then again, with this mount, you might not need the counterrotating
wheel at all. The outermost mount doesn't turn relative to whatever
it's mounted in, and everything inside is free to spin however it
wants with respect to itself.



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