New project to test flywheel safety

The FlySafe collaboration, which is being led by engineering consultancy Ricardo, includes the University of Brighton’s Centre for Automotive Engineering, alongside Imperial College London, Torotrak Group and GKN Hybrid Power.

Flywheels offer a potentially clean and cost-effective method of storing energy, and are currently used to save fuel and reduce emissions in vehicles through applications such as regenerative braking.

The team is using a custom-built test rig to analyse flywheel operation, investigating potential failure mechanisms at rotational speeds of up to 60,000 RPM in a vacuum. Imaging and sensors are used to monitor the behaviour of flywheels when they are caused to fail at high speeds through deliberately engineered defects.

Video is shot with a high-speed system that captures 20,000 frames per second, synchronised with a high-intensity pulsed laser that illuminates the flywheel. According to Ricardo, this high frame rate allows for just two seconds of footage to be captured, so data indicating when failure is imminent is closely monitored in order to film the exact moment it occurs.