Can an automotive/diesel truck/tractor or other type of flywheel be used?
Yes, you could use most anything for a flywheel, however there are a few items that need to be taken into consideration… The flywheel must be heavy enough and spun fast enough to produce acceleration times long enough to collect reasonable data, yet not so long as to induce unneeded stress on the engine. Acceleration times in the 8-12 second range seem to work very well. Changing the gearing to spin the wheel faster or slower will raise or lower the load on the engine and influence the acceleration time. Diameter is actually much more important than the weight of the wheel. With a larger diameter the weight is farther from the center of the circle, making it a larger “lever”, which will be harder to turn. Take a look again at the basic formula for inertia of a flat disc: “I” = Inertia I=1/2MR^2 Where: I=inertia M=weight of the wheel in pounds divided by 32.2(the constant for gravity) Weight= volume of wheel in cubic inches (radius squared x pi x thickness) x .2833(weight of steel/cub
