Overall petroleum consumption in the US has decreased, but no in the transportation sector. In 1981, transportation's use of petroleum increased. If we are to stop this trend without curtailing the vehicle miles traveled (VMT), automobiles must get smaller or the fuel economy of the current sizes must increase. Flywheels have long been considered as a means of improving fuel economy. Flywheels utilized with the internal combustion engine (ICE) allow the engine to be load-leveled. Thus the engine can operate in the region of minimum brake specific fuel consumption or maximum fuel economy. In addition, the flywheel can be used to recover the vehicle's kinetic energy during deceleration and braking operations for later use during acceleration. This adds further to the vehicle's fuel economy. There are two general approaches to the use of the flywheel. In one case, the flywheel power boosts the ICE-supplies power transients, and in the other case, the flywheel drives the wheels and is recharged by the ICE periodically at a constant rate. Each of these approaches has different implications for the flywheel and fiber composite flywheels, in particular. These implications are discussed. This paper results from a recent review of analytical studies of flywheel/heat engine propulsion systems for automobiles that have been conducted over the last 10 or so years and the current expectations of the Fiber Composite Flywheel Development Project within the Transportation Systems Research Program at LLNL. This has provided a more global understanding of the propsects for fiber composite flywheels to increase fuel economy. It has also surfaced issues that need to be addressed both experimentally and analytically if fiber composite flywheels are to find a niche in the automotive market. These findings are presented. (ERA citation 08:021032)


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    Title :

    Can Fiber-Composite Flywheels Increase Automobile Fuel Economy


    Contributors:

    Publication date :

    1982


    Size :

    16 pages


    Type of media :

    Report


    Type of material :

    No indication


    Language :

    English




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