A knowledge-based system has been developed implementing the ambiguous process of conceptual design in earlier design stage of the flywheels to assist the selection of a proper flywheel type.
The knowledges for the flywheel design consisting of the rules for conventional as well as super flywheels and other informations which may be necessary for the design process were extracted from literatures and some experts in the field. With these knowledges, an integrated knowledge based-system was developed to help users with informations and facilities to design flywheels interactively using a commercial package of knowledge-based system called INSIGHT2 with backward chaining and an in-house version made of LISP language with forward chaining.
The developed system consists of the knowledge base part and calculation part: the first one consists of main module and user level modules and the second one is to assist in analysing the stress distribution in the flywheels and deciding the flywheel dimensions and specifications for the various types of flywheels with proper data bases and graphic facilites. With this developed flywheel design aid software, several examples were demonstrated producing acceptable results.
