The F1 Technical Developments Thread

[Pininfarina_]

Haha oh my god that intake, so massive.

 

[otispunkmeyer]

First pics of Mercedes' 2014 turbo power plants!

Sauce

Interesting gap between the compressor and the turbine. I assume the compressor is on the right, sucking from what I assume is the airbox?

That trash-can looking item... is this possibly a form of generator for the KERS? Where I work I know of a project that has, I think, one of the first functional turbo-generators. There is a motor separating the compressor and turbine housings. It can generate electricity (meaning we can avoid turbo compounding where you have a second turbine downstream to recover waste energy, but is tricky to match the turbos) or it can work in the opposite way, spinning up much faster than with just exhaust flow, improving transient response (i.e. reducing lag). As they want double the power from the KERS in 2014 and for much longer duration, they're going to need a good way of generating the leccy to charge the system.

The main problem stopping this kind of thing in the past was designing a motor/generator that can run at 1:1 with the turbine. Adding in gearboxes to step the rpm down adds extra inertia to the turbo.

 

[jsausley]

Sorry, but how the balls do the exhaust ports connect to the turbo housing? It's not a center port exhaust like BMW and Audi use and that housing is farther than I expected from the exhaust ports. I guess we will have to wait and see.

 

[nsx_23]

For some reason I am immediately reminded of a Gatling gun.

 

[otispunkmeyer]

Sorry, but how the balls do the exhaust ports connect to the turbo housing? It's not a center port exhaust like BMW and Audi use and that housing is farther than I expected from the exhaust ports. I guess we will have to wait and see.

I did wonder this too. But I can see how they will do that if the turbine is the bit on the end. Its the intake I am confused about, I can't see where they would squeeze it back in under the air box.

Assuming the black box is the air box which fed by the intake over the drivers head, then the compressor should be sucking from that, but then where does it go? I assume there is going to be an inter cooler somewhere before it makes its ways back to the cylinders. Where is this going to fit?

The exhausts should be coming off the underside of each bank. Probably a 3 into 1 manifold on each side then going 2 into 1 to merge the flows for entry to the turbine (are they going to use variable geometry?) and then out the back in a single fat exhaust pipe that exits centrally?

Really hoping that the turbo has a high speed electric motor/generator nestled between the compressor and turbine. To my mind this is a great way to both generate some electricity from waste and at the same time improve transient behavior.

As an aside, we have an old 1.5 l Cosworth V6 twin turbo F1 engine in our lab on display. Very short in length, but wide. I think its got a greater than 90 deg V. It is twin turbo and two large blowers are bolted almost directly to the exhaust ports. They are nestled directly on the underside of the cylinder heads.

EDIT: I guess that the air box could actually be chambered. A central chamber for the air coming from the air intake to be sucked up with the compressor and then two chambers either side of this for the air flow to re-enter once it has been compressed and cooled.

 

[Dr_Grip]

It's actually a movie prop and Merc is messing with us

 

[jsausley]

I assume there is going to be an inter cooler somewhere before it makes its ways back to the cylinders. Where is this going to fit?

Another good question. Will they be limited to air-to-air intercoolers or will they be allowed to use air-to-water? The latter is much more spatially efficient.

 

[EsPpY]

For some reason I am immediately reminded of a Gatling gun.

Well at least you beautified the engine, I thought of a meat mincing machines immediately:

Here's hoping they make mincemeat of the competition this and next year!

 

[SchumacherM]

http://www.formula1.com/news/technical/2013/894/1050.html

This is legal?

 

[vikiradTG2007]

http://www.formula1.com/news/technical/2013/894/1050.html

This is legal?

It's hydraulically-operated, but I suspect it's done using passive sensors and systems, not by active modification through an onboard computer, in order to get around the active suspension ban.

 

[SchumacherM]

How the hell would that bypass the rule, it's literally suspension that's active. :lol:

 

[lukenwolf]

As I understood. It's actually a passive system. The active suspension was raised/lowered etc by a computer, while the Merc system relies entirely on the laws of physics with no direct invervention of a computer or the driver, in which case it would be perfectly legal.

 

[SchumacherM]

IMHO if you read the rules to the dot and follow them 100%, it doesn't fly. Although long has the border between literal and foggy interpretations of the rule book been lost. I guess if they're still running it without problem in scrutineering it pleases the FIA.

 

[hiimandy1]

It's not "active" in that they can't decide mid race to change ride height or rebound rate or whatnot. The only thing moving the components of the system is the movement of the suspension itself, so it's passive; just an extension of the suspension itself that happens to link the front and rear. Because it doesn't have manual inputs, it's legal. Basically, what lukenwolf said.

 

[Cellos88GT]

It's not "active" in that they can't decide mid race to change ride height or rebound rate or whatnot. The only thing moving the components of the system is the movement of the suspension itself, so it's passive; just an extension of the suspension itself that happens to link the front and rear. Because it doesn't have manual inputs, it's legal. Basically, what lukenwolf said.

This.

It's not all that different from the passive hydraulic behavior of a self-adjusting shock absorber.

 

[Gman333-X-ferrari]

 

[ahpadt]

Very clever...

 

[GaryC]

That's not a point the FIA looks at in terms of safety or structural, right? So it should be legal.

 

[Pininfarina_]

Moves up as airflow increases? So redirects air for something rather than providing direct downforce?

Man that's why I love F1. So many clever shenanigans.

 

[mpicco]

If it redirects air its an aero part, if its an aero part it cannot move, at least that's what I remember of the rules and why there was such debacle about flexiwings.