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Re: Light makes right
I would contend that a flywheel's only purpose
is to even out the power pulses. This would have the effect of a smoother
idle, and possibly greater traction based on the firing order of the
engine.
The downside is IMHO horsepower consumed. IIRC horsepower is loosely a
measure of an engines rate of change ability(simply put, gain/lose rpm).
Would that not be the intent behind an F1 car having virtually no
flywheel?
They have no concern for idle characteristics, all the engineers want is
for
the engine to increase rpm as quickly as possible. Less mass to move,
easier
to make it spin faster simply put eh? To wrap it up, the lighter the
flywheel the worse your idle but the greater the release of your engines
power to be dedicated to making your wheels turn faster which is what we
want right?
I am not going to even address the how the flywheel can smooth out the
powerpulses which can give better traction in corners portion.
Not even close to an engineer
Joshua C.
Not quite, JC.
A) The flywheel has another purpose; to provide a proper friction surface
for the clutch disc to ride against. Actually, this may be its PRIMARY
purpose, since an automatic-transmissioned car has no flywheel per se, only
a flexplate (okay, for you pickers of nits, the torque converter acts like a
flywheel, I'll give you that). I have run a small block Chevy with only the
flexplate and, while it was noticeably rougher, it did idle.
B) Horsepower is not a measurement of changing rotational speed. It is a
calculation based torque and rpm. An engine produces power (i.e.torque,
and therefore hp) even at a steady state rpm.
C) Smoothed-out power pulses give better traction? Actually the opposite is
true. This can be seen in the way a four-stroke dirtbike hooks up better
than an equivalent two-stroke; the more widely spaced (and more powerful)
power pulses give the tires a chance to find traction between the pulses
whereas the less-powerful-but-twice-as-frequent pulses of a two stroke do
not.
Larry
sandiego16v
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