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ENCOR1100 ENGINEERING DYNAMICS

DESIGN EXERCISE

OVERVIEW
This design exercise involves students to apply the knowledge they have acquired from
this course and bending stress, previously acquired in ENCOR1000 Engineering Statics to
design a motor-flywheel-propeller system.

DESIGN PROBLEM



Suppose you are tasked with the responsibility to design a motor-flywheel-propeller
system as is shown in Fig. 1. The propeller, A, is mounted on a shaft and has a total mass
of 250 kg. The shaft is mounted on two bearings, B and D. In between the bearings, a
flywheel is installed to regulate the speed of the shaft caused by the torque variations
generated by the motor. The distances between each component considered is shown in
the schematic in Fig. 1. The motor supplies an equivalent kinetic energy of E
k
= 600 Joules


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to the propeller. The propeller blades are connected to the hub by two connecting rods as
is shown in Fig. 2. Each propeller blade has a mass of 100 kg. The weight of the hub is 50
kg. The centre of gravity of each blade l
b
= 0.45 m measured from the end of a connecting
rod.



Your specific tasks in the design of the motor-flywheel-propeller system are as follows:
1. Design the size of the flywheel. This will include specifying the dimensions of both
outer radius, r
o
, radius and inner radius, r
i
.
2. Design the size of the shaft, r
i
, so that it does not fail.
3. Propose the range of operating speed of the motor-flywheel-propeller system.

When designing the system, you are required to adhere to the design requirements
prescribed in the following section.

DESIGN REQUIREMENTS

STRENGTH & DIMENSION REQUIREMENTS OF SHAFT


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1. The shaft is to be fabricated using cold-formed, Grade 450 steel with yield stress
(
y
= 450 MPa). Assume that the density of steel is
s
= 8050 kg/m
3
, Youngs
modulus of steel, E
s
= 200 GPa and Poissons ratio of steel v
s
= 0.3.
2. The allowable bending stress,
b
, in the shaft is
y
/3.
3. The shafts radius, r
i
, has to be between 21 mm r
i
30 mm.

STRENGTH & DIMENSION REQUIREMENTS OF FLYWHEEL
1. The flywheel is also to be fabricated using cold-formed, Grade 450 steel with yield
stress (
y
= 450 MPa).
2. The allowable hoop stress,
h
, in the flywheel is
y
/4.4.
3. The flywheel can have an outer radius between 260 mm r
i
300 mm.
4. Appendix A provides some theory and details about flywheel design that is useful in
this design exercise.
5. The thickness of the flywheel has to be such that it fits between C and D with a
spacing of at least 0.16 m measured from the edge of the flywheel to the edge of
the bearing.

STRENGTH REQUIREMENTS OF THE CONNECTING RODS
1. The connecting rods (see Fig. 2) can withstand a maximum tension of 470 N when
the propeller is rotating.

OPERATING CONDITIONS OF THE PROPELLER
1. The propeller is to be designed to operate between 60 r.p.m N 100 r.p.m. You
will need to propose the range of possible operating speeds at the end of the
design exercise.

DESIGN PROCEDURE
Due to the number of computations that is required, it is strongly suggested that you use a
Microsoft Excel spreadsheet to get your solution. You may first map out your solution
technique by hand and program them into Microsoft Excel. The accompanying
spreadsheet will provide you some insights on how to start this design exercise.

The following outlines a possible approach (although not necessary the only one) that can
be adopted to design the motor-flywheel-propeller system.
1. From Eq. (A1) determine the mass moment of inertia of the flywheel. Once this has
been identified, the mass of the flywheel can be determined by considering the
geometry of the flywheel. You should be able to obtain the thickness.
2. Determine the maximum hoop stress in the flywheel using Eq. (A4).
3. The shaft has to support the weight of the propeller and flywheel. The bearing
supports and B and D result in only vertical reaction forces. Perform a static
analysis and determine the bending moment diagram. Identify the locations where


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the bending moment is maximum. It is strongly suggested that you express all these
in terms of the unknown mass of the flywheel so that it can be programmed inside
Excel. (Hint: Use the knowledge you previously acquired from ENCOR1000
Engineering Statics)
4. From the maximum bending moment/s identified in Step 2, determine the maximum
bending stress due at the shaft. (Hint: Use the knowledge you previously acquired
from ENCOR1000 Engineering Statics)
5. Compute the tension in the connecting rods. Assume that the mass of the propeller
blades are concentrated at the centre of gravity of each blade. (Hint: Use polar
coordinates you studied in this course)
6. Check the design requirements for the thickness, maximum allowable bending
stresses in the shaft, maximum allowable hoop stress in the flywheel and the
tension in the connecting rods.

Note: It is strongly suggested that you work out these steps by hand to obtain explicit
expressions for the variables you need to compute in the 6 steps above. Once you have
obtained explicit expressions for these, you can start to work on your Excel spreadsheet.

You can start by assuming the values of r
o
, r
i
and N to be at their minimum requirements.
Then, fix the values of two of these variables e.g. r
o
and N. Then vary r
i
sequentially by
increments from 21 mm to 30 mm. This will enable you to check if any of these
combinations satisfy the design requirements. Once you have finished the first set of your
computations, you can then increase the value of r
o
slightly and then repeat the above
steps. Similarly, after finishing this, you can repeat the same by increasing N. This will lead
to many sets of parameters, some of which will satisfy the design requirements. You can
then select the size of your flywheel and also propose the operation speeds of the system.

To assist you with this, a spreadsheet showing how you can program the reaction forces at
B and D has been supplied to help you start with your design. You can use this
spreadsheet to complete the exercise. If you feel that you can come up with a better
solution approach, you are welcome to do so.

REPORT
The design report should comprise the following:
1. A front page, clearly identifying the course, exercise title, name and student
number.
2. A synopsis of no more than 100 words that briefly describes the exercise in your
own words.
3. A Methodology section which clearly shows the computations you had used to
arrive at your conclusion. You can choose to present your computations using


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unknown variables, or you can provide an example for which the variables have
been substituted by trial values. All formulas must be shown clearly.
4. A Results section showing the combination of design parameters that meet the
design requirements.
5. An Analysis and Discussion section, which addresses the issue of what size of the
flywheel and shaft diameter would you recommend as an engineer, given the many
possible combinations available.
6. A Conclusion section that summarises the outcomes of the exercise.

Submission is required by 5:00 pm on the Friday of Week 11.


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APPENDIX A: FLYWHEEL FACTS

Flywheels are energy-storage devices that operate on the principle of inertia. It is commonly used in
rotary devices and systems to regulate the energy supply in a system when the torque supplied by
means of e.g. a motor is vary with time. A flywheel will store energy when there is the supplied torque
is more than that required. When there is an energy deficiency, a flywheel will release the energy it
has previously stored as torque to the system it is attached to.

For simplicity, we may assume that the kinetic energy of a flywheel, E
k
, is equal to

2
2
1
e
m k
I E = (A1)

In Eq. (A1),
m
I is the mass moment of inertia of the flywheel and e is the rotational speed in (rad/s).
Flywheels are nominally circular disks with internal and external radii,
i
r and
o
r , respectively. The
mass moment of inertia of a flywheel is therefore

) (
2
1
2 2
i o m
r r m I = (A2)

where m is the mass of the flywheel.

Due to the rotational motion, particularly at very high speeds, the hoop stresses developed in a
flywheel may be high enough to cause failure. The hoop stress,
h
o , in a flywheel can be calculated
by the relation

|
.
|

\
|
+
+
+ |
.
|

\
| +
=
2 2 2 2
3
3 1
8
3
r r r
o i h
v
v v
e o (A3)

where is the material mass density of the flywheel, v is the Poissons ratio of the material and r is
any radius on the flywheel. From Eq. (A3), it can be identified that the maximum hoop stress in a
flywheel occurs when
i
r r = . Substituting this condition into Eq. (A4), the maximum stress in a
flywheel is

|
|
.
|

\
|
|
.
|

\
|
+
+

|
.
|

\
| +
=
2 2 2
3
3 1
1
8
3
i o h
r r
v
v v
e o (A4)

This condition can be used to check if the dimensions of the flywheel under a generic operating
speed are sufficient to prevent failure of a flywheel.