This simulator charges a cutaway flywheel module through its motor-generator, coasts it through parasitic losses, and discharges it back to an electrical load — while auditing every joule. Adjust rotor mass, radius, charge speed ceiling, discharge cutoff speed, requested electrical power, motor/generator torque limit, one-way conversion efficiency, bearing drag and a low-windage enclosure switch, then compare useful energy, speed limits and mechanical braking.
• A real-time 3D cutaway workbench of the solid-disk rotor/hub with an encoder mark, the shared motor-generator stator and rotor shaft, upper/lower bearings with an optical encoder, a sectioned containment vessel with a vacuum port, a bidirectional converter cabinet with heat sinks and busbars, an electrical load bank with power-flow indicators, and a mechanical brake with caliper and shaft disk, with home view, focus-selected-part, show-full-enclosure, exploded view, auto-rotate, expand and show/hide labels controls. • Four action controls: charge rotor, coast/disconnect power, discharge to load, and apply mechanical brake. • Playback controls: pause/resume, 0.1 s and 1 s step advances, and five playback speeds (10× and 100× slow motion, real time, 10× faster, one minute per second). • A Curves & measurements tab with a live rotor-speed chart, a stored/delivered/loss energy-ledger chart, the full model equations (solid-disk inertia, kinetic energy, torque limits, dynamic speed equation, drag model, energy-balance check) and snapshot measurement readouts covering rotor speed, inertia, stored/usable/capacity energy, state of charge, rim speed, input/output/loss power, cumulative input/output/loss energy and the energy-balance residual. • An Experiments tab with four guided fixtures (charge from rest, coast-loss comparison, discharge cutoff, mechanical brake) and a Model verification bench that runs independent deterministic checks against a fresh model without disturbing your live trial, plus a timestamped event log and a copyable trial report. • A Learn & assess tab with guided lessons, a knowledge-check quiz with reset, and a written model-scope statement with a technical reference link.
For a solid disk, moment of inertia is J = mr²/2, and stored kinetic energy is E = Jω²/2 — energy scales with the square of angular speed but only linearly with inertia. Doubling rotor speed quadruples stored energy at fixed inertia, which is why flywheel energy storage systems favor high rotational speed over simply adding mass.
Charging and discharging are both limited by two constraints at once: the motor/generator's torque limit and the requested electrical power. Near rest, torque limits how quickly power can be delivered; at higher speed, the requested electrical power itself becomes the binding constraint, since torque times speed equals power.
Not all stored energy is usable: discharge is deliberately cut off at a selected minimum speed, so the rotor retains kinetic energy below that point that the modeled electrical load can no longer draw on. The simulator separately tracks capacity (energy at the speed ceiling), stored energy, and usable energy (stored energy above the discharge cutoff).
The energy audit panel enforces a closed energy balance: electrical input must equal electrical output plus all losses (conversion inefficiency, bearing drag, and mechanical braking) plus the change in stored energy. Braking converts stored energy directly to heat rather than useful electrical output, which the loss ledger reflects. This is a representative solid-disk model — it does not include rotor stress analysis, containment certification, rotor dynamics, grid inverter switching, a thermal model or a vacuum pressure solution, and changing rotor mass, radius or speed ceiling restarts the rotor and energy ledger at rest.
Kinetic energy for a rotating solid disk is E = Jω²/2, where J (moment of inertia) depends linearly on mass but energy depends on the square of angular speed ω. Doubling speed while holding inertia fixed therefore quadruples stored energy, which is why flywheel systems typically favor higher speed over added mass to increase capacity.
The discharge cutoff is a chosen minimum speed below which the model stops electrical extraction, even though the rotor still contains kinetic energy at that point. This distinguishes total stored energy from usable energy — the portion actually available to the connected electrical load before the cutoff is reached.
Near rest, the motor/generator's torque limit caps how quickly it can accelerate the rotor, so electrical charging power builds gradually rather than jumping to the requested value. At higher rotor speed, the requested electrical power itself can become the binding constraint instead, since power equals torque times angular speed.
No. It is a representative solid-disk inertial model with torque/power-limited conversion and prescribed drag — it excludes rotor stress analysis, containment certification, rotor dynamics, grid inverter switching, thermal modeling and vacuum pressure solutions. A certified flywheel system requires full mechanical and electrical engineering analysis.