There have been many cases where racing technology has made its way down the ladder right into the cars that we use to drive to work. Flywheels could be the next such advancement. The pinnacle of racing motorsports, Formula 1, is investigating the possibility of using flywheels for energy storage. The idea is old, but recent advancements in low-mass high-strength materials may finally make flywheels a reality.

What's Number 6?

FIA President Max Mosely has sent a letter to Formula One teams outlining the plans for phasing in hybrid systems in the sport. Beginning in 2009, the Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS) will be integrated into the transmissions of F1 cars. The KERS is a mechanical system that captures kinetic energy during vehicle deceleration using a flywheel mechanism. Unlike production vehicle hybrids that convert kinetic energy to electrical energy and store it in a battery, the KERS is far more compact and lighter, adding only about 55lbs to the car. The amount of energy that can be stored is limited but for this type of application it is actually useful since the cars are constantly accelerating and decelerating from corner to corner.

The FIA will phase in the use of KERS over the next four years in conjunction with other changes to reduce the size and output of the engines. A selectable power boost button on the steering wheel will allow the drivers to decide when to use the stored energy for a quick boost in power. New rules that are expected to be enacted for 2013 will replace the current 2.4L V-8 engines with even smaller turbocharged engines.

[Source: F1-Live]

Do your remember the hybrid system that stores braking energy not as electricity but in a rotating flywheel as kinetic energy? Well, the system is going to be mated to a special CVT transmission able to change 6-to-1 ratio within one revolution. That is, in 50 ms, the transmission can go to almost zero to full power.

The Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS), which is soon going to be tested with a Chevy V8 engine, becomes part of the transmission system of the car and it is light: for F1 applications, the variator and flywheel each weigh less than 5kg in a system with a total mass that does not exceed 25kg. This is both good for the upcoming Formula 1 hybrid racers and for regular car use, where it has a huge potential to help reduce CO2 emissions and pollutants.

The developers say that the device is twice as efficient as electric hybrids. And it's got an additional benefit: since the flywheel is vacuum sealed, the system is silent, except for the links to the transmission and bearings, which is something they're working on.

The flywheel is made from high-strength steel and composite material in which the maximum stresses are less than in the con-rod of a conventional internal combustion engine.

Flybrid, Torotrak and Xtrac promise to keep us updated on the evolution of this system, which you can check by clicking the Read link. Full press release after the jump.

[Source: Flybrid]

We have often brought up the fact that the Formula 1 racing series, and their sanctioning body the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), would like to showcase improved efficiency and use technology that is more relevant to the cars that are actually driven on the street. Honda has taken the lead when it comes to portraying a green, environmentally friendly image, but it used to be commonplace for technologies derived through the rigors of racing to show up on street driven cars in a few years. This has not been happening lately, as the race cars look and perform less and less like their road-going counterparts. It looks like the tables could turn on the sport, with the race cars instead using technology developed for the road. Specifically we are talking about recapturing braking energy to be reused as motive force. This is a common component of the hybrid car. According to Max Mosely, president of the FIA, "We will make research work in F1 more road-relevant. We will move F1 from the technology of the 20th century to that of the 21st century, to move away from F1 being labeled as a dinosaur."

While I would certainly never label the F1 series a dinosaur when it comes to technology, it is a good sign that the governing body of the sport recognizes that the cars need to have some connection with ordinary cars. We could soon see the day when F1 technology is making another impact on road cars, as the system that is being designed for the race series is totally different than what is currently available in hybrids on the roadways today. The system is being jointly designed by Torotrak and Xtrac. Instead of capturing the braking force as electricity, the force instead will be stored in a rotating flywheel as kinetic energy. Also part of the design is a variator which will transfer the kinetic power of the flywheel to the transmission; the end result will be cars slinging quickly out of corners that they had just slowed down for.

While the thought of a flywheel spinning at super high speed sounds a little scary, at least they are not trying rubber bands!

Related:

• Could hybrid technology move into Formula 1?

[Source: Wards Auto]

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The Audi R10 and Peugeot 908 have garnered an enormous amount of attention for their diesel powered efforts at Le Mans in the last two years but they are by no means the first attempts at alternative power-trains for race cars. One of the more interesting if ultimately unsuccessful ideas came in the form of the Chrysler Patriot. Chrysler announced the Patriot in 1993 and development begun in earnest later that year and into 1994. The Patriot chassis was designed and built by now defunct race car manufacturer Reynard to the rules of the World Sports Car class and was intended to run at Le Mans beginning in 1995.

Find out what made the Patriot drive-train unique after the jump.

For the past several years the governing body of Formula One racing has been pondering rule changes that would, among other things, make the sport more environmentally friendly. One of the proposals that has popped up several times is using hybrid drivetrains. Transmission builders Torotrak and Xtrac have agreed to a license agreement that will let Xtrac build continuously variable transmissions based on Torotraks design for Formula One hybrid drive systems.

Unlike the hybrid electric drive systems used in production cars, kinetic energy captured by the regenerative braking system wouldn't be stored in electro-chemical batteries. The proposed Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS) would store energy in a mechanical flywheel system. The flywheel system would be lighter and able to capture more energy quickly making it better suited to the repeated deceleration rates of a race car.

[Source: Torotrak]

The AutoTram is a new streetcar concept from the Fraunhofer Institute for Transportation and Infrastructure Systems IVI in Dresden, Germany which combines the flexibility of bus transport, needing no rails or overhead power lines, with the passenger carrying capacity of trams. This makes the system between 30 and 50 percent cheaper than conventional railway systems.

At up to 36 meters / 118 feet long, the AutoTram can be operated as a single bus on low passenger routes, or assembled to form a uni-directional or bi-directional high-capacity vehicle. An active multiple-axle steering system with integrated guidance ensures the AutoTram can manoeuvre around tight city streets with sharp bends.

Propelling the AutoTram is an innovative hybrid drive concept that draws is power from a 180kW / 240hp diesel engine linked to a flywheel energy storage system. In the same fashion that typical petrol-electric hybrids use regenerative breaking to recharge on-board batteries, the flywheel energy storage system using breaking energy to spin a flywheel whose momentum can later be harnessed to provide positive movement. This allows the AutoTram to travel short distances, up to two kilometers /1.2 miles, completely without noise or emissions.

[Source: HybridCarNews]