Remote triggered flywheel energy storage with dynamic braking

This work describes the design and implementation of a novel mechanism for the study of a flywheel energy storage system with dynamic braking. Dynamic braking is suitable for short duration energy requirements and hence works well with they flywheel setup. The flywheel set up integrates DC motors with motor controller card and a data acquisition system to effectively monitor, acquire and record the real time values. The lab allowed students to remotely access the network and run the DC flywheel experiment. The user interface design allowed students to observe the traces of energy storage and depletion when acceleration and deceleration of flywheel occurred. The work successfully demonstrated how complex phenomena can be taught using Virtual Laboratory experimentation.