Monday, April 6, 2009

KERS in F1; Basically Explained


2009 season saw number of F1 teams applies the Kinetic Energy Recovery System as part of their tradition and effort to adapt new ideas and technologies into today's ever competitive racing scene. In actual fact, KERS is not totally new technology, it has been invented in the recent years and only during this 2009 season, F1 teams agreed to adapt it permanently into their race machine.

KERS is basically a power storing device which restore unwanted energy during braking and re channel it back as additional power (up to 85bhp) boost, great for overtaking and blocking during races.

There are actually few type of KERS;

Flywheel (Flybrid) Types
Very simply the system comprises a flywheel connected by a continuously variable transmission [CVT] to the drivetrain. If you move the CVT toward a gear ratio that would speed the flywheel up it stores energy. Conversely, if you move toward a ratio that would slow it down then it releases energy. Finally, a clutch separates the drive if the revs move beyond the limits of the system.
Williams and Flybrid both offer customer their off the shelf versions for F1 teams.


Electronic

Uses motor generators and an electrical storage medium, either Li-ion batteries or supercapacitors. The Tokachi 24 Hours winning Toyota Supra was fitted with a capacitor based system but the Peugeot 908HY uses Li-ion batteries. The batteries do have a number of issues such as the cost and frequency of replacement also cell have been known to explode or catch fire.


Hydraulic
A hydraulic based system stores the recovered energy in a high pressure vessel within the car. McLaren’s original KERS from 1998 was of this type.


Let us hope that KERS will remain and continuously developed in F1, which if it does, it may make its way into our production cars in the new future.

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