TechKnow: Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS) for F1 cars

Yesterday during the Australian Grand Prix, many would say history was made as the Brawn GP team finished 1-2 on the podium. Yes, what a moment and everyone knows that. But there were some F1 cars which were using something people were calling the KERS. So, let us know on what this KERS thing is exactly.

KERS, when expanded known as the Kinetic Energy Recovery System is a very unique and a debated addition to F1 racing. As most people watching F1 have already known that it's sort of a speed boost and gives a increase in the speed for a few moments. It gives a speed boost of exactly 6.6 seconds giving a total of 82hp during that period. So where is the energy to give the boost coming from?

 

 A flywheel KERS

It is coming from the Kinetic Energy lost during the braking of an F1 car. The wasted Kinetic Energy is transferred from the rear end of the wheel to a battery or supercapacitor and when fully charged, can be used for that speed boost.

The KERS is exemplified in complex high end systems such as the Zytek, Flybrid, Torotrak and Xtrac used in F1. The concept of transferring the vehicle’s kinetic energy using Flywheel energy storage was postulated by physicist Richard Feynman in the 1950s. The Xtrac & Flybrid are both licensees of Torotrak's technologies, which employ a small and sophisticated ancillary gearbox incorporating a continuously variable transmission (CVT). The FIA has defined the amount of energy recovery for the 2009 season as 400kJ per lap which translates to 6.6 seconds of 82hp speed boost. The transfer of power to a battery is the electronic KERS system. There is a mechanical KERS system also which uses a flywheel to store the wasted kinetic energy instead of a battery.

The KERS system was tested for the first time during yesterday's Australian Grand Prix in Albert Park, Melbourne. The KERS system is quite heavy and expensive as a result of which many teams have opted out of it. Among the ones which are using are Ferrari, McLaren, Renault and BMW Sauber. The KERS system does not have much impact in the qualifying times as demonstrated by the poor qualifying times by the above teams but during yesterday's race, overtaking and stopping another from overtaking proved to be quite useful with the KERS and the extra boost was helping quite a lot. This is only the beginning for this new technology but some experts suggest that this might be a safety hazard for drivers using it. It remains to be seen on how the KERS works as the season progresses but whatever it is, it makes the current season of F1 a little bit more interesting after the Rear Diffuser controversy which I will also discuss right here in this blog very soon.