ABSTRACT
Many energy generating means such as wind turbines and photovoltaic cells suffer losses of energy when at their peak intensity, also in various denominations such as the academic institutions and churches, there are bound to be abrupt failure in power supply, hence the fuel-less generator is developed to address those issues by conserving or storing energy which is then released to be used during the failure periods, therefore enhancing un-interruptible power supply and fuel economy. The aim of this study is to design and develop a fuel-less generator using the gravitational stored in flywheel by using principle of energy recovery system.
The developed conceptual flywheel energy storage system (FESS) fuel-less generator using flywheel consist majorly of the following units:the power supply unit (2hp single phase electric motor); four sets of pulleys/V-belts, and an 80kg flywheel fitted to a transmission shaft by sets of keys; a 7.5KVA single phase alternator; all mounted on a framework fabricated from mild steel.
In this work some of the components of the flywheel energy storage system (FESS) fuel-less generator such as: speed transmission ratios of various sections; pulleys; main shaft; bearings selections; etc., were designed. The design of all these components matches with the components actually used in flywheel energy storage system (FESS) fuel-less generator.
The materials used for the fabrication of the flywheel energy storage system (FESS) fuel-less generator components such as: the keys; pulleys; shaft; and framework were all sourced locally.
Moreover, materials selected for application in flywheel energy storage system (FESS) fuel-less generator; such as: the electric; the flywheel; the bearings and the alternator, were also sourced locally.
The machine elements of the fuel-less generator designed/selected include: design of the speed mechanism in order to achieve the output speed of 1500rpm; pulleys; shaft parameters (shaft diameter, lateral deflection, angular deflection, shaft length and critical speed); keys; flywheel energy analysis; bearings selection and framework design. In particular, the shaft parameters are: shaft diameter was computed as 51mm; angular detection of shaft was computed as 2.06 x 10-30/m; lateral deflection of shaft was compared as 5.58 x 10-5mm/m; critical speed of shaft was determined as 4003rpm. Moreover, the flywheel analysis gave the following results: moment of inertia of the flywheel was computed as 2.50kg/m2; kinetic energy of the flywheel was computed as 78.96KJ; tensile stress on the flywheel was computed as 3.18 x 107N/m2; maximum energy storage for the flywheel was computed as 158.01KJ; energy density on the flywheel was calculated as 1.98Kw/kg; input force to the flywheel Ff computed as 1.26KN; torque on the flywheel was calculated as 0.32KNm; angular acceleration of the flywheel was calculated as 20.37rev/s2; time to spin the flywheel to rated speed was computed as 1.96sec.
