Aim:

  
To determine the moment of inertia of a flywheel.
 
Apparatus:
 
Fly wheel, weight hanger, slotted weights, stop watch, metre scale.
• THEORY : 
• Flywheel is a solid disc mounted on the shaft of machines such
as turbines, steam engines, diesel engines etc. When the load of
such machines suddenly increases or decreases its function is to
minimize the speed fluctuations which occurs during the working
of machines.The Flywheel acquires kinetic energy from the
machines.The capacity of storing of KE (kinetic energy) depend
on the rotational inertia of the flywheel. This rotational inertia is
called as Moment of Inertia of rotating object namely wheels.
• The moment of inertia of  body is defined as the measure of
object’s resistance to the changes of its rotation
• In this experiment, the flywheel rotates freely about a
horizontal axis. The radius of the axie of the flywheel
can be measured with a caliper. As ( m ) falls, its
gravitational potential energy (PE) is
transferred into translational kinetic energy of m,
rotational kinetic energy of the flywheel and work done
by friction. As the flywheel completes N further turns,
its original rotational kinetic energy is transferred into
friction loss.
• For the known mass density & geometry of the material
used, in SI system of units the unit of moment of
inertia is Kg.m2 (kilogram meter square)
• Applications:

• Flywheels can be used to store energy and used to produce very high
electric power pulses for experiments, where drawing the power from the
public electric network would produce unacceptable spikes. A small motor
can accelerate the flywheel between the pulses.

The phenomenon of precession has to be considered when using

flywheels in moving vehicles. However in one modern application, a
momentum wheel is a type of flywheel useful in satellite pointing
operations, in which the flywheels are used to point the satellite's
instruments in the correct directions without the use of thrusters rockets.

Flywheels are used in punching machines and riveting machines. For

internal combustion engine applications, the flywheel is a heavy wheel
mounted on the crankshaft. The main function of a flywheel is to maintain
a near constant angular velocity of the crankshaft.