xpensive wrote:autogyro wrote:I watched that exact comparison and I have to say you are right.
It is going to be very difficult for the FIA to make this call on the new engine/Kers regulations and keep up the spectacle.
Perhaps a reversed grid would help keep things exciting.
I'd like to return the courtesy Auto by saying that however technical xciting, it's hardly doable unless for the top four or five teams.
Just think about it, an 800 kJ battery to be charged/discharged every 80 sec? My Sony Ericsson U-polymer 3.8V Cell-phone battery is 12 kJ and it takes two hours to charge/discharge.
Your cell phone battery is a lithium-polymer cobalt oxide battery. There are reasons for that. The thin prismatic form factor means polymer electrolyte is recommended. And the lithium cobaltdioxide cathode gives a very high energy density. This is important in order to keep the weight of the phone down. It also gives a 3.7 average voltage (various lithium ion chemistries gives between 3.3-4.2V/cell), enough to power a phone using a single cell. But this kind of battery also got several disadvantages. For starter, the battery is quite sensitive overcharging, overdischaging and high temperatures so it requires a protection circuit. One of the purposes of the circuit is to prevent thermal runaway which can cause fire and/or explosion (as some cell phone, mp3 player and similar owners have discovered). These batteries are also optimised toward energy density, while their power density is not that great. After all, a cell phone doesn't consume that much power anyway. The time it takes to fully charge a lithium battery is essentially the same anyway.
But there are other lithium ion chemistries. Such as manganese spinel and iron phosfate. This kind of chemistries are found in high power applications, like hand tools, hybrid and plug in hybrid cars. Chevrolet Volt do for instance use a lithium ion manganese spinel battery. These batteries are safer, provide a higher power density but also a lower energy density (a little over half that of the cobalt oxide battery).
When a battery is used in a hybrid car, or a KERS system for that matter. The battery is never fully charged, or discharged. The battery is instead kept in a state of charge within a certain range. Say 30% to 85% as in the case of the Chevrolet Volt. That range is used to increase the lifetime of the battery, the battery can also be rapidly charged and discharged in this range, and the battery voltage is stable.
With KERS, the engine density is also not important. We need a battery that can store 400 kJ or 111 Wh. This is about what two normal laptop batteries can store. So storing the amount of energy isn't a problem. It's the power density that sets the limit to battery weight. Say we have batteries that can handle 4 kW/kg, then for 60 kW, we need 15 kg of batteries. Those same batteries can store about 7 MJ, almost 20 times the energy we needed to store. So the batteries can operate a very narrow range, with regard to state of charge.
rjsa wrote:What I really would like to see is:
-Limited fuel amount per race KM, yearly drop in amount;
-Standard ECU (this could get complicated with varying engine geometry, anyone has a better idea on how to block TC?);
-Engine has to last X races and qual sessions, sealed on first use (no more freeze);
-Heavily constrained materials (production only), like aluminium, cast iron, steel and ABS (add whatever is used on turbines gaskets, crank bearings, piston rings and pins for a Passat 1.8 Turbo).
Actually, today there are several materials that are used in production, yet still banned in F1. Most materials used in F1 engines are actually quite conservative. Mostly a mix of aluminum alloys (pistons, head, block, engine covers, pump housings, pump rotors), iron based alloys (camshafts, crankshaft, gears, piston pins, fasteners, piston rings, cam followers), titanium (connecting rods, valves), CFRP (intake manifold, non structural engine covers) and superalloys (exhaust manifolds, fasterners).
In production, materials like metal matrix composites, titanium alumnide, magnesium and are used, while these are all banned in F1 engines.
