This simulator lowers a weight at a controlled speed so that a cable drum spins a generator feeding an electrical load. As the mass descends you can watch the stored gravitational energy drain away and reappear, split between useful electrical energy and heat.
• A 3D elevated weight, cable drum and brake, generator cutaway, electrical load and loss channel. • Four sliders: descending mass (5-50 kg), initial drop height (1-4 m), generator efficiency (0.5-1) and controlled descent time (4-20 s). • Six live readouts: remaining potential energy, electrical energy delivered, dissipated heat, electrical output power, energy-balance error and distance descended. • Two presets: Ideal conversion (all released energy reaches the load) and Half efficient (electrical energy and heat each receive half).
Initial energy is m g h0 and the energy remaining at height h is m g h, so the released energy is m g (h0 - h). The electrical share is E_electric = eta times the released energy, and the rest is heat, Q = (1 - eta) times the released energy. During the descent the electrical power is P = eta m g h0 / T. Because the descent speed is constant, the energy transfers even though the kinetic energy does not change, and the balance error should stay at zero.
The descent speed is prescribed and kinetic energy is negligible, with a lumped conversion efficiency. Startup and stopping transients, voltage regulation and real generator loss mechanisms are omitted. The run holds 3 s after the descent so the final ledger stays on screen, and the output power then drops to zero even though the energies remain. Compare the two presets to see that efficiency only changes the split, never the total.
No. The weight keeps losing gravitational potential energy as it descends while the electrical load receives power, even though the kinetic energy stays constant.
It is dissipated as heat in the conversion chain. The model lumps every loss into one efficiency factor, so heat equals the released energy times (1 - efficiency).
Energy is the joules delivered in total; power is the rate. After the mass stops, the modeled output power is zero while the delivered energy and heat stay on the ledger.
It uses a constant descent speed and one lumped efficiency. Startup and stopping transients, voltage regulation and specific generator losses are not included.