2014-2020 Formula One 1.6l V6 turbo engine formula

[WhiteBlue]

The power, max 120 kW (163 Hp), is delivered through the same unit as the MGU-K, which is a motor/generator, to the crank.
Max delivery per lap will be 2 MJ (2000 kWs) which means you can enjoy 120 kW for 16.7 seconds.

Which is only a partial answer. The energy that goes through the ES (battery) is restricted. But you may send unlimited energy from the heat regeneration to the gearbox up to the full time limit of 120 kW. So theoretically you can have 120 kW all the time if we only consider the rules. Practically there is a limit in the thermodynamic energy balance of the turbine and the efficiency of the turbine.

Ringo has tried to compute the energy or the power that would come from the turbine after the compressor is satisfied. We have seen different values for this power output. An educated guess would be approximately 50 kW electric when the engine is on full power setting.

Part of the MGU-H energy has to be send to the ES in order to replenish the stored energy for spooling up the turbo from idle. But you can theoretically also use braking energy for that purpose. In any case this is a relatively small amount of power.

How is it all managed? We know some things by logical deduction. The turbo must be kept balanced all the time by the SECU software because there is no waste gate. So spooling up and producing electric energy are functions that are fully defined in the design process of the turbo unit. The SECU will only execute the necessary positive and negative torque induction in the electromagnetic coils of the MGU-H to provide the balance according to those design parameters.

Then we have the ES management. We know very little how that will be done, but there must be a program that looks at the loading and unloading of the ES. This program ultimately must set the level of electric power that will be meshed with the ICE power when the driver pushes the throttle pedal. But it does not stop here. There is also a kick down mode that will increase the electric power delivery when activated. This is supposed to work similarly to the KERS button that we now have. When the kick down is activated the rate of electric torque will be increased. Details of this programming are everybodies guess.

To make it even more confusing the ES management program must also consider and manage the kinetic energy recovery.

For that purpose the brake pedal will be generating an hydraulic pressure and an electric signal of that pressure. The pressure signal will tell a rear brake management CPU and program how much electric braking torque is supposed to be generated. This little unit will use a modulating valve to match the electric torque from the MGU-K and the friction brakes. I reckon that there will be separate CPUs for each MGU to do the control of the basic power electronics and to execute the overhead tasks of the energy distribution and storage. All those units have to be controlled by the central ES management unit.

Which brings us to the question of how it will be controlled by the driver. The driver will have a throttle pedal and a brake pedal and the kick down mode as the primary control functions. On top of that he will probably have some rotary dials and switches to influence all those automatic management functions to some degree. I assume that there will be ways to make the kick down and the electric braking more or less aggressive. We can also assume that there will be different engine modes to manage the fuel curve. A safety car can suddenly put you over the programmed fuel curve. The driver may adjust different maps with pre programmed settings to adjust to that situation. There should also be a qualifying mode for the ES management which needs to act different for a qualifying and an in/out lap or a race lap. The driver will probably have a selector switch for that.

But the real nightmare is the cascading and mapping of all these different controllers in a controller network for the design and race engineers. For this purpose the standard control system which is in actual fact a real time multi controller network has been updated big time already one year ahead of the 2014 season. The 2013 cars are already running on this enhanced in car network. The power train manufacturers are very busy now with all these new management functions that need to be designed and implemented in the next six months.

The race engineers will be very busy with new tasks for the first test of the new power units I guess. All these new systems will have to be tested and calibrated and the strategies adapted for different circuits. The guys will be very busy.

[Chuckjr]

This has really helped tremendously, thank you.

I guess the details for how much that "kick-back" switch will deliver, and for how long each lap, is the million dollar question. It must be hugely regulated or that alone could be the game changer. I'm sure expectation of the kick-back is simply a retread of KERS...

[bonjon1979]

.....

Brilliant as ever, thank you. Seems that there are some really complicated challenges lying ahead for next year. I expect we'll have a lot of problems with engines etc at least for the first half of the season. I predict reliability will decide next years championship!

[WhiteBlue]

The kick down works pretty much like the systems that you know from road cars. If you push the throttle pedal all the way down gently you get basic max power. If you step on it extra hard you get additional acceleration by extra power. The design engineers have to determine the difference between the two values and they can adjust this value for each track. In kick down mode you deplete the ES more quickly and obviously the amount of braking energy is different on a track like Monza or Nurburgring which is available for additional expenditure. When you have depleted the stored energy the kick down will not respond any more.

I agree that reliability will have a big impact next year. Luca Marmorini and Ross Brawn have both told us about this expectation. We have also seen in the 2013 winter testing that the standard control program of the SECU on the new hardware produced a number of glitches to the system. When the network has to support a multitude of new functions and strategies one expects that a lot more debugging will be required. On top you will get all the teething problems of the additional hardware that has never been operationally tested. All of this is supposed to happen in four tests in six weeks of winter testing. Much to go wrong. Figure for yourself what kind of stress test it will be for the teams that have not done these kind of things since 2006 when we had the last big launch of a new formula. Much opportunity to forget how it was done.

[bhall]

"Kickdown" loopholes were closed prior to the 2012 season. Since then, torque demand must increase/decrease monotonically with accelerator travel [5.5.4.] at a set gradient [5.5.5], and accelerator pedal shaping maps can only vary according to the tires fitted to the car (wet/dry)[5.5.3].

[WhiteBlue]

"Kickdown" loopholes were closed prior to the 2012 season. Since then, torque demand must increase/decrease monotonically with accelerator travel [5.5.4.] at a set gradient [5.5.5], and accelerator pedal shaping maps can only vary according to the tires fitted to the car (wet/dry)[5.5.3].

I have read about the kick down somewhere and have not checked it with the regulations lately. On inspection of all the regulations I cannot find the necessary exceptions from the regulation paragraphs that you mentioned. So I must assume that your statement is true. It appear that the drivers will have to do without the kick down function. That does make it a bit easier in effect for the drivers but the energy management system must still provide all the other functions I have described in my post. Kudos to you for finding the mistake. Apologies to all readers for making the understanding of the new driver control functions more difficult.

[autogyro]

Kickdown on a road car invariably means a downshift of the gearbox.
Engine rpm increases so power rises.
Kickdown is used when acceleration or pulling power is insufficient for the purpose.

In an F1 car a downshift at the same time as applying more power from the ERS would result in wheelspin and a risk of over reving the engine.

I had concluded that the addition of electric power would be more efficiently used as a method to reduce fuel use.
It will also be useful to increase top speed subject to gearing.

I thought the regulations prevented the application of extra electrical power for overtaking. (kickdown?)

[Holm86]

To make it even more confusing the ES management program must also consider and manage the kinetic energy recovery.

For that purpose the brake pedal will be generating an hydraulic pressure and an electric signal of that pressure. The pressure signal will tell a rear brake management CPU and program how much electric braking torque is supposed to be generated. This little unit will use a modulating valve to match the electric torque from the MGU-K and the friction brakes. I reckon that there will be separate CPUs for each MGU to do the control of the basic power electronics and to execute the overhead tasks of the energy distribution and storage. All those units have to be controlled by the central ES management unit.

This is what we talked about in the electronic brake thread. This is how I suggested it would work. Do you have confirmation that this is how it will work?? Or do you just agree??

[WhiteBlue]

This is what we talked about in the electronic brake thread. This is how I suggested it would work. Do you have confirmation that this is how it will work?? Or do you just agree??

I did agree with you after checking the regulations and used the information here in this write up. Please be assured of my appreciation for helping to interpret the regulations on this item. I acknoledge your input and give some kudos to you for this.

5.1.7 All engines must have six cylinders arranged in a 90° “V” configuration and the normal section of each cylinder must be circular.
All six cylinders must be of equal capacity.

I just came across the change in regulations that is bolded in the third edition of the regs. I did ask myself what may have caused this "clarification". Perhaps some people asked if they can basically do a V4 and put some decorative small dummy cylinders at the back end which have no functionality and just fulfil the requirements?

Funny enough this gave me the idea to check if someone can actually design a V4 engine with two dummy cylinders that do not have any function at all but satisfy the regulations. I think it is possible. You would simply have a slightly longer stroke to get the required volume with the diameter fixed at 80 mm and you would save a lot of moving parts. The result could be an engine with less friction and superior power delivery. You would also save some plumbing on the exhaust headers and save space. I'm really curious if somebody made a move that way. Honda?

[ringo]

O'boy, those calculations are way too advanced for me, I trust my old Lazy-dog; 17.5 Hp per liter, bar absolute and 1000 Rpm.

With 27.8 g/s, 46.6 kJ/g and a 35% efficiency, 2014 engines should give some 620 Hp.

At 10.5 kRpm, that means 2.1 Bar absolute in my Lazy-dog.

Not terribly scientific, but if you compare with the 1988 Honda at 2.5 bar absolute, I think you find it works out pretty well.

That's about right.

[ringo]

About the wastegate,
Did the rules say that they are illegal?
I feel teams will still implement a wastegate, it would be quite wise to have it for safety purposes.
Also it acts as another means of control.
We don't know what can go wrong with the complication of the TERS, and maybe a wastegate can act as a means of mitigating damge, or a means to allow a car with a problematic energy system to finish a race.
Having it as redundancy is cheap insurance. It wont take up much space under the engine cover either.
Also it's also a much more precise, simpler and quicker reacting form of boost control i'd imagine.

[Blackout]

So how big will the 2014 intecooler(s) be if the turbo pressure is atleast 2,5 bar ? : P
Here the Honda intercoolers of the 80's which, correct me if i'm wrong, had a turbo pressure between 4.4 and 5
It also strikes me how thin and tight were the inlet manifolds of that Honda compared to the Porsche and Renault one...
2014 inlet manifolds schouldnt be very big especially with the direct injection IMO

[WhiteBlue]

About the wastegate,
Did the rules say that they are illegal?
I feel teams will still implement a wastegate, it would be quite wise to have it for safety purposes.
Also it acts as another means of control.
We don't know what can go wrong with the complication of the TERS, and maybe a wastegate can act as a means of mitigating damge, or a means to allow a car with a problematic energy system to finish a race.
Having it as redundancy is cheap insurance. It wont take up much space under the engine cover either.
Also it's also a much more precise, simpler and quicker reacting form of boost control i'd imagine.

5.8.2 Engine exhaust systems must have only a single tailpipe exit which must be rearward facing and through which all exhaust gases must pass.

The bolded text is new in V3 of the 2014 regulations. At the same time all references to waste gates have been deleted from the regs. Unless you rejoin the waste gate to the single exhaust pipe it will be illegal. In any case you would have to set the waste gate very high to make sure you harvest all available energy by the MGU-H.

[xpensive]

...
At 10.5 kRpm, that means 2.1 Bar absolute in my Lazy-dog.
...

That's about right.

I'm glad.

[lio007]

5.8.2 Engine exhaust systems must have only a single tailpipe exit which must be rearward facing and through which all exhaust gases must pass.

The bolded text is new in V3 of the 2014 regulations. At the same time all references to waste gates have been deleted from the regs. Unless you rejoin the waste gate to the single exhaust pipe it will be illegal. In any case you would have to set the waste gate very high to make sure you harvest all available energy by the MGU-H.

quite strange...1 month ago I read a little bit in the 2014 regs, published on the FIA-site and I'm sure there were two exhaust exits permitted

From my point of view it could be also difficult for the designers when the regs change several times.