F1 Engine friction

[bettonracing]

Two concerns come to mind with the magnetic bearing, none of which can't be overcome:

Lateral & longitudonal crankshaft loadings may require steering & brake inputs to vary magnetic loads (and thus electrical power). Currently the load required by oil pressure is more predictably associated with engine rpm.

Electromagentic interferance with sensors (& radio - which coincidentally seems to be a problem in Singapore).

Again, these are not insurmountable, but definitely points to consider for sports car engines.

Regards,

H. Kurt Betton

[riff_raff]

netoperek,

For a racing engine, the space and weight needed for a magnetic crank main bearing would be unacceptable. Not to mention the massive amounts of electrical power needed. A magnetic rod bearing would be worse, due to the massive inertias of the magnets, and the complex slip rings and wiring needed to get electrical power to a rotating magnet assembly.

Magnetic bearings have extremely low friction, but their radial load capacities are also very limited. The low weight, compact size, durability, low cost, and marginal losses in a conventional journal bearing crank system are a much better choice than a heavy, large, delicate, expensive, power hungry magnetic bearing system, for recip engines.

The only place in a race car where a magnetic bearing might be beneficial is the shaft bearings of a flywheel KERS device.

Good question though.
riff_raff

[netoperek]

Well, i agree, magnetic bearings may turn up pretty heavy on the outcome...So main problems are weight and durability i assume?
but still there are some advantages i think. As was stated previously in this topic, there is quite a lot of energy wasted already due to friction, which could be used to power-up the electro-magnets instead.

Lateral & longitudonal crankshaft loadings may require steering & brake inputs to vary magnetic loads (and thus electrical power). Currently the load required by oil pressure is more predictably associated with engine rpm.

Well, i disagree (unless i got Your reply wrong ). The whole point of control is to attenuate noise, regardles of its origin and in magnetic field, which changes in square with distance, it is not that hard to be done - if one makes proper assumptions designing it.
I think that matter of intereference isn't that hard to overcome as well - after all we have already seen quite powerfull electromagnets already (KERS), and noone was too worried about them back then.

I'm not trying to persuade You in favor of concept of using the magnetic effects in F1 I'm just curious how many obstacles can we find, and for how many of them can we find possible solutions.

Regards
Adam