Design and Modal Analysis of a Flywheel in a Multi-Cylinder Engine
A flywheel used in machines serves as a reservoir which stores energy during the period when the supply of energy is more than the requirement and releases it during the period when the requirement of energy is more than supply. For example, in I.C. engines, the energy is developed only in the power stroke which is much more than engine load, and no energy is being developed during the suction, compression and exhaust strokes in case of four stroke engines. The excess energy is developed during power stroke is absorbed by the flywheel and releases its to the crank shaft during the other strokes in which no energy is developed, thus rotating the crankshaft at a uniform speed. The flywheel is located on one end of the crankshaft and serves two purposes. First, through its inertia, it reduces vibration by smoothing out the power stroke as each cylinder fires. Second, it is the mounting surface used to bolt the engine up to its load. The aim of the work is to design a flywheel for a multi cylinder petrol engine flywheel using the empirical formulas. A 2D drawing is drafted using the calculations. A parametric model of the flywheel is designed using 3D modeling software Pro/Engineer. The forces acting on the flywheel are also calculated. The strength of the flywheel is validated by applying the forces on the flywheel in analysis software ANSYS. Structural analysis, modal analysis and fatigue analysis are done on the flywheel.