•  
• EDN Europe MAGAZINE
•  
• Free SUBSCRIPTION
• Subscription Renewal
• View Media Kit

• EDN
• EDN Australia
• EDN Asia
• EDN China
• EDN Japan

EDN.COMMENT: Racing uncertainty

The motor-sport phenomenon that is Formula 1 is a strange enterprise. Many of its values seem, at first sight, to be incompatible with the mood of the times. In an era where oil costs are rising fast and with ever-growing concern for environmental issues, the very notion of shipping cars, teams and their complete travelling infrastructure back and forth across the world on a two-week cycle is not an entirely comfortable one. Not to mention the profligate attitude to energy consumption that is inherent in the racing itself. Engineering developments now in the pipeline might help its image–a little– in those respects, although I doubt if it will ever be possible to give the class a “green” makeover. F1 has always had a split-personality; on the one hand there is the driver-personality- centric, gladiatorial-combat angle; and then there is the role it has played as a test-bed for technologies that (sometimes) have gone on to become mainstream in the automotive industry. In recent racing seasons, the latter aspect has taken something of a secondary role, as the Formula’s administration has outlawed some technologies– active suspension, for instance –in an attempt to make the racing more exciting. And to keep the performance of the cars within physical limits, especially in respect of G-forces, that a human driver can tolerate.

So, for the technology-development programme of the sport to turn its attention to matters concerning energy and fuel consumption is no great surprise. In the 2009 season, the car specification will allow–in fact, require– kinetic energy recovery under braking, the car storing that energy and making it available as a power boost for acceleration. In truth, this isn’t likely to do much for the fuel consumption of an F1 car, but it does mean the sport is once again exploring areas that might be of use in assisting the energyefficiency of everyday vehicles in the future. Today’s hybrid cars do this routinely, of course, and such systems are also in fairly widespread use in some city-bus designs; but as an add-on function to a standard internal-combustion engine, industry experience is limited. F1 itself has at least as much interest in the racing dynamics of the system. Having homogenised the car design (a prescribed engine format of a 2.4l V-8, with a standard engine control unit), the sport now has an incentive to find a power margin that will facilitate overtaking manoeuvres. The new specification calls for a system to be able to store and release up to 400 kJ per lap of the racetrack, with an energy- capture rate of 60 kW (which is about 80 hp, or somewhat over 10% of the peak power output of the car.

How would you build such a system? Electronic engineers would likely think immediately of some form of motor-generator in the drive train, with some robust semiconductor switches plus a controller, to route current to and from an energy store– possibly a supercapacitor array. But in an encouraging sign that this initiative has triggered some real engineering differentiation, that’s not the only approach: also under development is a mechanical solution, that would store the energy in a flywheel. Each has its challenges; designing a bidirectional (electronic) power switch that will handle the dynamic and transient loads; and that will fit in what will inevitably be an extremely confined space; and that will keep working under the stresses of the F1 environment, must be a demanding job for someone out there. 400 kJ isn’t all that much to store electrically, although getting it in and out of a “battery” (whatever form that takes) at a 60-kW rate definitely is demanding; but 400 kJ in a small flywheel is a decidedly tricky task for our mechanical engineering colleagues.

Meanwhile, at shows such as the recent PCIM (Power Control & Intelligent Motion) it was possible to have a little innocent fun around the topic. The motor industry, and F1 in particular, is noted for the robustness of the non-disclosure agreements with which it surrounds technology developments. But, given the parameters of the problem, it’s not too hard to guess the identity of some of the companies who might be involved. Approaching them with the question, “Can you tell me about the programmes that you are working in, towards the F1 KERS (kinetic energy recovery system) objective?” will in some cases produce some very hurried disclaimers that, “We can’t discuss whether we are even involved in any such exercise.”

Will it save any energy? Will it be reliable? Will it give us any new power-circuit-design directions? Has it any relevance for mass-market cars? Motor-sport technology might just be about to get interesting again.