KERS, ERS, ES, MGU... what?

I figured that my last post might have been a little complicated and maybe not as clear as I thought it would be, so I decided to do another post and explain the ERS and KERS, which started to form a Formula one car into a magic box ;)

So, what is KERS?

KERS is the abbreviation of Kinetic Energy Recovery System and it is “an automotive system for recovering a moving vehicle's kinetic energy under braking”. Basically when start braking the rear wheels generate energy (in form of extreme heat) and this heat was taken in and turned into electrical energy through a generator and is then in the Energy Store (ES) of the car. There was a button on the steering wheel of a F1 car that the drivers could press to make use of this extra energy which equated approximately additional 80 bhp. Each driver used KERS differently, depending on whether they wanted to overtake or to defend their position. Such a stored energy was limited. KERS could only be used for 6-7 seconds per lap and a driver could use it several times in a lap. This system was used from 2011-2013.

What are ERS and MGU?

With the new regulations in 2014, the older F1 engines that produced around 750bhp and additional 80bhp with the usage of KERS have been replaced with V6 engines that operate with an Energy Recovery System (ERS). That is something like KERS but just a little bit more complicated than that. (Yes, it can get more complicated than KERS.) This year’s engines produce around 600bhp and additional 160bhp for approx 33 seconds per lap (KERS could only be used for 6-7 seconds per lap).

ERS has two different parts: MGU-K (motor generator unit-kinetic) and MGU-H (motor generator unit-heat). The MGU-K converts the kinetic energy that is generated under braking into electricity that is then stored in batteries in the Energy Store. The MGU-H is connected to the turbocharger and converts heat energy from exhaust gases into electrical energy. Compared to KERS, these elements together have twice the power of KERS. 

Why so complicated?

As I mentioned in my previous posts, one of the main reasons for setting such groundbreaking regulations is the environmental impact of Formula One. With such an energy recovering system, the cars are using their own energy and therefore saving fuel. If this technology would work its way onto mainstream which could save millions of barrels of fuel (sarcasm).

Montreal Race = MGU-K and Brake failures

Formula One can be boring. That’s a fact I’ve repeated many times in my previous posts. But last week’s race was one hell of a race with many disqualifications, crashes and system failures. Speaking of system failures, because of these I want to change my To-Do-List and talk about what failures occurred in Montreal, where the race took place.

MGU-K system (motor generator unit-kinetic) is an indispensable feature of a Formula One car. This system adds around 160 bhp to a F1 car’s power. How? Well, this system converts kinetic energy that is generated under braking into electricity and this is stored in batteries in the Energy Store (ES). This energy can then be used as additional power. Long story short, it makes the cars go faster! ;)

In Canada, both Mercedes cars lost this MGU-K system around the 37th lap. So, that meant that they were much slower than other cars on the circuit. But this loss has not only caused slower cars but in Hamilton’s case, it overloaded the rear brakes. Because of this new brake by wire system the discs are much thinner. Many teams think that the KERS system can slow down the cars but that’s not always the case. At a circuit especially as the Canadian one that goes hard on brakes the cars start to fail.

Let me get back to the break by wire system: When the driver hits the brake it is not just the brake discs that slows the car down, the energy recover system (ERS) also does a significant amount too. This means that the drivers left pedal is no longer linked directly to the rear brakes instead it is linked to a computer which then controls the rear brakes. The front brakes continue to operate in the same way as they always have done. The main reason for this is that rules say that the car is only allowed to recover a certain amount of energy per lap from the rear brakes, and there is only a limited amount of energy that can be stored in the battery.

Both Mercedes cars and a Force India car were struggling with the new Brake-by-Wire system. After Perez (Force India driver) lost his rear wing break, he collided heavily with Massa on the final lap, putting both cars into the wall at high speed on the pit straight.

From the nose to the wing…

Both front and the rear wing have been affected by changes:

The front wing got narrower with a reduction from 1.800mm to 1.650mm wide. The reason for that was to reduce the number of punctures caused by an endplate catching the rear tire of a competitor’s car. This change of almost 150mm may sound small but it has massive implications on the aerodynamic of the car.

Each front wing endplate has moved inwards by 75mm, placing them almost directly ahead of the front tires which is a tricky problem for aerodynamicists trying to control airflow across the car, not least because tires are constantly changing angle. 
Whereas last year’s wider wings meant that most of the airflow could be directed around the tires and then down the car, 2014’s narrower wings mean that a portion of air will have to be directed between the front wheel and the chassis before joining up with the rest of the airflow behind the tire.

To look back in time in terms of aerodynamic, the front wing has been changed A LOT. Last two years, the wing had to be set lower every season. This meant that at high speed or under braking (when the nose of the car dives), the front wing can be touching the ground and this is very bad for both aero and for creating sparks, which will alert that the wing is not its normal position relative to the chassis.

Another wing change is the rear wing flap that has to be shallower and beam wing is not allowed anymore! Beam wing creates an area of depression that helped the diffuser in extracting air under the car.

These changes mean that the rear wing will be capable of producing less downforce in 2014 than it did in 2013, something that will be most noticeable at high-downforce tracks.

Teams are still trying to get as much rear downforce as possible and most of them use more aerodynamically-profiled rear suspension parts. This is nothing new - teams have been doing it for some time - but some will no doubt try to be even more inventive in this area. One of these rear suspension parts is the “pushrod-suspension”.

A final note to the rear wing change: the DRS flap can now open as wide as 65mm, 15mm wider than last year. This should ensure that the DRS remains an effective overtaking aid in this new era.

Instant photography

Instant photography or best known as Polaroid were invented in 1947. The reason why it is called Polaroid is that the company first launched instant camera was the Polaroid Corporation. This huge success of the company also named instant photography.

So, how does the instant photography work?

It is really simple:

Either it works with magic or

Little educated ants develop the film within the camera.  

No, actually none of these two possibilities can be true. As someone who knows nothing about chemistry, it is magic. But with a little explanation it all gets very clear:

Instant photography is almost the same as a regular camera film, with just few additional elements. When taking a picture, a usual film captures patterns of light using special chemicals. So, the shutter opens and closes for a fraction of a second and the light bursts through and strikes the film.

A black-and-white film, consists of a plastic base ground and is coated with particles of silver compound (layer). Color film, on the other hand, has three layers: one that is sensitive to blue light, one to green and one to red light. When light strikes on these compounds, the sensitive grains at each layer react to light of that color.

To turn this result into a picture, the film has to be developed. For this, 4 different dye developers that contain dye couplers react with one of the color layers in the film.

The developed color film has a negative image, which is kind of a problem, as white areas may appear black and vice versa and all this with different colors. . In slide film, the two dyes couplers that attach to the unexposed area combine to form the color captured at the exposed layer.

The instant-camera developing process combines colors in the same basic way as slide film, but the developing chemicals are already present in the film itself.