Mechanical Engineering Laboratory Report

MASS MOMENT OF INERTIA

Name (as in SEGi ID): MELVIN PEREIRA A/L ALOYSIUS

Student ID: SUKD 1800980

Group ID: P

Course Code: EME3411 ________________________________

Course Name: Laboratory Investigations 2_________________

Submission Date: 15/11/2018

Objective

To obtain the mass moment of inertia of a flywheel

Theory

Figure 1 Principles of Flywheel

Flywheel is a rotating disc, which functions on the principles of energy conservation. Flywheels
usually have high moments of inertia, which usually is used in maintaining stability and speed in
rotating shafts. Flywheels also acts as a reservoir for storing energy in this case is rotational energy
providing continuous energy when supply is discontinuous.

For a thin solid disk of flywheel, the mass moment of inertia is shown in Equation 1, where
m = mass, r = radius of the flywheel

(Equation 1)

For rotational motion, Newton’s second law (see Equation 2) can be adopted to describe the
relation between the applied torque, T and angular acceleration, .

T = I.  (Equation 2)
Note that for constant angular acceleration, the angular displacement of a rotating object
can be obtained from Equation 3

= t + ½  t2 (Equation 3)

APPARATUS
Flywheel apparatus; A set of weights; A stopwatch and ruler.

EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE
1. The radius of torque pulley (rp) and flywheel (r), as well as the mass of the flywheel (m)
was measured and recorded.
2. The cord is wound around the torque pulley and and a load hanger of known weight was
hooked to the free end.
3. A load was placed on the load hanger and the load was held in position
4. The flywheel was adjusted so that the arrow marked on it aligned with the arrow marked
on the rig.
5. The load was released while simultaneously pressing the stopwatch button.
6. After one revolution, the flywheel and the stopwatch was stopped simultaneously.
7. The time taken for the flywheel to rotate one revolution was recorded.
8. The experiment was repeated twice to get an average value of time taken for the flywheel
to rotate one revolution.
9. Repeat Steps 3 – 9 for another 4 different sets of load.
10. Repeat the experiment by attaching both the small disk and the ring to the flywheel.\

Initial Measurements

Description Measurement

Flywheel 1 Weight 15.1 Kg

Flywheel 1 Thickness 40 mm

Flywheel 1 Diameter 250 mm

Pulley Diameter 40 mm

Shaft Diameter 15 mm

Pulley Radius 20 mm

Flywheel 2 Weight 7.9 Kg

Results
Total load, W on Applied Torque (Nm) Time taken (Sec)
torque pulley (N) = W * rp
t1 t2 t3 Average t

10 0.2 5.83 4.63 4.48 4.97

20 0.4 2.72 2.73 2.52 2.63

30 0.6 1.73 2.07 1.92 1.90

40 0.8 1.54 1.45 1.73 1.58

50 1.0 1.43 1.54 1.46 1.47

Table 1 Results without disk and ring

Total load, W on Applied Torque (Nm) Time taken (Sec)
torque pulley (N) = W * rp
t1 t2 t3 Average t

10 0.2 3.80 3.86 3.57 3.74

20 0.4 2.04 1.91 1.99 1.98

30 0.6 1.54 1.47 1.59 1.53

40 0.8 1.23 1.21 1.34 1.26

50 1.0 1.01 1.07 0.95 1.01

Table 1 Results with disk and ring