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Get a 1 ton car, take out the engine and replace it with 20 50 ton spring bars with 1.5 foot of travel distance. That's 1000 tons of potential energy. The bars could be compressed with an electric driven linear motor in your garage. With enough engineering the process could be as simple as pulling into your garage after work, the springs would be automatically compressed and you're ready for your drive to work the next morning. I estimate that a 1 ton car, including the driver, driving on an average incline of a 1% grade could travel about 27 miles or more. This estimate is not based on any practical knowledge. I imagine since this idea is so simple that if it were possible it would have already been done. An engine like this would be cheap considering the simplicity. I heard about a compressed air engine on slashdot.com. This is a similar concept. Also, grid energy is sometimes stored using spinning flywheels. This type of energy storage isn't a new concept. The question is, can it be small enough for a car?
MrCoder, Oct 26 2008
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i like this idea. alternative energy to the future. not sure how feasible a giant spring is though.
MrCoder, a spring-driven vehicle does work and is a tried and true concept, but I have yet to see a wind-up car that goes more than ten feet. I think one of the major drawbacks for both spring and flywheel cars (technologies both found in toys) is that the 'engine' is heavy and requires too much rigid structure around it.
Also, you have to 'wind' it--I can't turn a 1000 ton key. But it's interesting that winding a spring and turning a windmill are both spelled the same, 'wind'...hmmmmm..
MrCoder, I considered a spring powered car before too. I was thinking along the lines of a big ribbon spring, like a wind-up clock uses. I suspect the power to weight ratio would be inferior to a compressed air system and would thus have poor range, but it would certainly work at least for a very short trip. It could use an electric motor to wind it. The motor could be a separate unit that you can remove and leave in your garage to reduce weight.
Flywheels were experimented with in the 80's as a possible energy storage device for cars. The biggest problem they had was the safety issue. If a fully "charged" flywheel suffers a catastrophic bearing failure, it can explode like a bomb. Really, any energy storage method has a potential for uncontrolled discharge, but some are worse than others. Apparently, flywheels are especially dangerous.
how much would this weigh?
range?
and what happens if you run out of 'fuel' before you get home? or want to make a long trip?
these are all the same problems as electric cars. now, i thought of this one a long time ago - a spring hybrid - may be a good way to capture stopping energy - possibly more efficiently than electric regenerative braking.