Comparison of Two Flywheel-Piston Linkages

by Nicholas Mira

Submitted : Spring 2012

The Scotch yoke and eccentric linkages (used to connect a piston to a flywheel) each behave in a different manner. This can be observed by deriving the position, velocity, and acceleration curves of each. The velocity curves resemble each other, but the differences in acceleration are more notable. Out of and into starting position (angle of 0), the eccentric linkage accelerates far faster. However, the acceleration curve of the eccentric linkage also plateaus for longer. The Scotch yoke reaches a slightly lower maximum speed than the eccentric linkage does, but the difference is negligible. As a result, most of the differences are to be seen in other figures. It is also notable that the velocity of the Scotch yoke piston is not affected by the length of the connecting rod while the velocity of the eccentric linkage's piston is.

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