Brief Tech Article: Wheels, Flywheels, and Polar Moment of Inertia
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Its hard for me to know what types of things people already know and what things are simple concepts that are amazing when realized. I think within the car world a lot of these ideas are a given, but the more scientific aspect of "why" and "how" arent fully understood. Regardless, I hope its something that can inspire people to think a little bit outside the box when it comes to car performance.
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Snap Understeer said:
Its hard for me to know what types of things people already know and what things are simple concepts that are amazing when realized. I think within the car world a lot of these ideas are a given, but the more scientific aspect of "why" and "how" arent fully understood. Regardless, I hope its something that can inspire people to think a little bit outside the box when it comes to car performance.
That basically. Everyone knows it. (Hopefully somewhat) But breaking it down further helps that much more.
good write up btw. Good job using Billy Mays! RIP to you sir. -
Thanks for the write-up! It was a good read.
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very nice article.
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If you wanna get REALLY nerdy. UUC has an interesting article on their site that includes the mathematical breakdown of drivetrain rotational mass loss resulting in more "Buttdyno" power.
http://www.nexternal.com/uuc/articles/FLYWHEEL-HOW-WORKS.htm
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Mekihead said:
If you wanna get REALLY nerdy. UUC has an interesting article on their site that includes the mathematical breakdown of drivetrain rotational mass loss resulting in more "Buttdyno" power.
http://www.nexternal.com/uuc/articles/FLYWHEEL-HOW-WORKS.htm
Thanks for the link. There is a basic rule-of-thumb out there (without digging for the actual equations) that says that reducing rotating mass has approx 2.5-3x the effect on performance that reducing non-rotating mass does. This is under the assumption that the rotating mass is of uniform cross-section, but I think the utility in that rule of thumb is more for thinking about things along the lines of "should I buy lighter seats to go faster, or should I buy lighter wheels for the same price" and stuff like that. Its cool to see that UUC has some sort of regard for math and physics rather than just a lot of companies that copy designs or dont care to take the time to optimize them.
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My Pop's a Mechanical Engineer that now supplies engine parts to every engine maker on the planet (Federal Mogul). We got into a conversation years ago on why it's better to remove unsprung mass before sprung mass and what the exact benefits would be. He busted out some paper and started crunching numbers. It was amazing to see someone calculate this stuff without any reference material. Half way through his calculations, I remembered UUC and pulled up the .pdf on that page.
"Well shit, that saves me a lot of trouble. I was going to start weighing those parts in a few minutes to finish the variables."
We were so impressed that they put up their work I ended up buying their 8.5lb flywheel/e34 M5 clutch combo for my last car. Night and day difference in performance.
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