Efficiency: Formula One engines in 2014

[niky]

They get a warm-up lap. With the old 6 second KERS, that was more than enough to charge the pack.

[NeilBlanchard]

I don't think they are using heat to make electricity - it is all mechanical regenerative braking, as far as I know. And yes, I believe the system is charged up at the beginning of the race, for the all-important start!

[Jyden]

Well - I'm not shure bout the F1, but in Lemans I know that they store the breake energy in a flywheel, to release it again out of the curves. Some might do it as electric energy som a generator connected to the flywheel.

[NeilBlanchard]

Williams had a flywheel KERS for a while, but I don't know if they still do, or if they have gone electric like (almost?) every other team.

[mechman600]

Originally Posted by NeilBlanchard

I don't think they are using heat to make electricity - it is all mechanical regenerative braking, as far as I know.

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_Formula_One_season:

The Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS), first introduced in 2009, will be incorporated into the design of the engine; its function as a supplementary power source will be taken by the introduction of the Thermal Energy Recovery System (TERS). The TERS unit will give drivers an additional 161 bhp (120 kW) for thirty-three seconds per lap, compared to the KERS units used prior to 2014, which gave drivers an 80 bhp (60 kW) for six seconds per lap.

And from the original article Mercedes reveals 2014 engine details*:

This is achieved by harvesting energy from the turbo and a heat converter, storing up to 10 times as much as the current systems.

Originally Posted by NeilBlanchard

Williams had a flywheel KERS for a while, but I don't know if they still do, or if they have gone electric like (almost?) every other team.

No, they all are electric now. Something about people being afraid of a 50K RPM flywheel spinning in a car....

[NeilBlanchard]

I've been following F1 for a few years now, and I've not heard anything called TERS. Was is the mechanism that converts heat to electricity?

[mechman600]

Me too. It seems that TERS is a new invention for 2014.

[ron]

looking forward to finding out more on the ters subject, Im going to do some research , nasa should have some info

[serialk11r]

Meh, KERS is just some electrical engineering business, I'm excited about TERS! That's a good amount of energy they're recovering there, if 33 seconds of boost is accurate.

Somehow I doubt that it's done with thermocouples (Seebeck effect), as even though they have high temperature ones available, their efficiency is still no good (though better than trying to use a 300C generator and limiting the temperature). It would be really good for the auto industry if they got some of the experimental nanoscale materials working, but it seems too soon.

It's probably a gas turbine (steam?) of some sort driven off heat exchanger to the exhaust. I also hear that they have a blowdown turbine stage in the exhaust stream to capture some of the leftover combustion pressure, good for another 7% more power.

It's funny, F1 engines are supposed to be very efficient already because they have very little friction, with heat recovery and blowdown pressure recovery 50% thermal efficiency could be possible! Take that, diesel.

[cfg83]

Hello -

Cross-posting :

http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...ion-25666.html

CarloSW2