Blown exhaust off-throttle Engine maps explained and why EBDs are good for F1

[Tension_36th]

You can restrict engine maps and what not. Valencia qualifying just proved what these so called experts claimed that was the secret to Redbulls pace, were just indulging their little alice in wonder land exaggerations. Well they can look elsewhere now. When you have genuine engineering concepts its not going to be outlawed by people who cant do a good job on their own car developments.

And these so called journalists out there who have allegedly "revealed" they knew the secrets, have eggs on their faces.

Besides if they were any good in engineering they wont be doing work for the press and or running wordpress sites trying to attract audiences and ask for donations. It just shows they are the rejects of the engineering world. Exactly why they are not employed in real automotive industry. Just ask yourself if you were really employed in worthwhile positions you wont have time for detailed blogs and such tactics for a business

F1 teams are not stupid they are just trying to rattling cage by asking for changes they know would change nothing, only these arm chair experts would think otherwise. Its common practice for teams to moan and complain, they don't believe what they cry for all the time. Its only a select few who fall for these things and take them at face value and get something to write about, fill their pages basically.

Nothing is going to happen come Silverstone. If you haven't realized it yet, They are going to use the same engine maps in qualifying and the race atleast until the first pitstops effective Valenica GP onwards.

If you want you can change it by plugging in your console control via computer, but it takes way beyond a few seconds to upload and reprogram the EEPROM. So that is out of the question. It just shows Redbull uses less exhaust hot blowing unlike some others like Lotus renault (this too is pure speculation based on their forward exhausts). Until i see some Thermodynamic CFD Simulation numbers we will never know if this will really affect Lotus Renault. On paper it may look like it, but you cant be sure. I would say not much.

And why will silverstone not matter just as it did here in Valencia?. Its simple you don't have to be an engineer to understand this one.

Your engine has standard strokes inside the piston chamber.



(Illustration Source Wikipedia)

First the piston is to be in the starting position ideally once the engine starter has kicked in.

Then its the intake stroke, here your air and fuel mixture enters the chamber, shown in the picture as blue mist. Notice the piston is going down creating a vacuum in the chamber. This obviously will be filled up by fuel air mixture, the suction effect is what mostly drives the pressure of intake even if the intake valves maybe opening mechanically.

Next the piston is to come back up due to its moment of inertia, this leads to the compression of the fuel mixture that just got into the chamber. This is the compression stroke.

Next we have the spark plug sending out timed charges that will ignite the fuel mixture, What you have is a sort of explosion, that results in expanding hot gases. This explosion is obviously very powerful there by driving the piston downwards resulting in what is called the power stroke.

Now from way back in school's science classes, what happens when gases expand? They loose energy which means heat in this case. This heat is what we try to cool our engine compartments with liquid filled radiators. This is immediate heat.

Now that the piston has gone down and is due to come back up the still considerably hot (not as hot as the explosion) gases are expelled out through the exhaust pipes with the exhaust values opening up, Showing in the picture above as red mist.

Thats the working of the engine in simple terms and more than enough to understand what hot blowing is all about in a few.

Now the diffuser if you refer back to the older 2010 articles I had written on the car launches you will recall that they generate downforce by employing the concept of venturi effect. The narrow underside if the car has faster moving air flow compared to the front and rear where the air is either just rushing in or is let out.

Obviously on the extremities the velocity is lesser hence more pressure and less pressure right under the car due to higher velocities. Therefore you have a force acting down on the car from the top as the velocity of the air above is lower than what it is below the car.

That is the diffuser's job.

Now there is a complex science behind the boundary energization of the diffusers. For now we just need to know this rule that the more you energize the boundaries of the diffuser the more air it pulls from underneath the car, thereby increasing downforce.

Hot air can energize the boundaries.

This is why they use the exhausts to blow onto the outer edges of the diffuser structure.

Now when the throttle is given the engine is running and its letting out hot spent gases. All is good and fine for the blown diffuser to work.

But the moment a driver arrives at a corner he lifts and breaks. In this moment the diffuser is not getting the hot gasses anymore, this upsets the downforce levels into the breaking zone. Making the car suddenly unsettled.

More downforce into corners means more confidence for braking late and being early on the power out of an exit.

So these teams who used redbull style diffusers with exhuast blowing, wanted a way to maintain hot gases even when the driver is not on the throttle.

The way they did this was by clever ignition retarding and adjusting timing of the strokes. All controlled by the ECU which has programmable units in them to have such Maps stored and accessible to the driver via knobs on the steering wheel.

They devised maps where the compression stroke has the exhaust values open with the ignition given just in time to let the combustion happen very close to the exhaust valves and deeper inside the exhaust pipes themselves. The crank shaft is disengaged via clutch controls and that allows the engine to keep flooding the small chamber space with fuel air mixture to combust. The clutch actions takes care of negating torque output. This sends out a constant flow of gases to the diffuser and hence you have downfroce even while being off throttle.

Now having the explosions happen so close to the value and that the weaker exhausts walls is a heavy load on the engine. Do that for 10-15 laps in succession and your engine life is down the toilet. You can't cool them well enough for that, the packaging is just too compact for that. The values and the exhausts will crack and catastrophically fail a chamber or more.

So when you are now restricted to one map for both qualifying and race. How will they go onto anything aggressive now? No they cant.

Yet Redbull is still quicker on a track they shouldnt be that quick yes? There is no mystery here, the reason is these people have been wasting time looking into the wrong areas.

Guess what are the details on the ban on off-throttle hot blowing? You are restricted to 10% of max throttle at 12k rpm and 20% at 18krpm.

Ah yes so its not banned, it just reduced.

As you can see all teams who run these things are now going to race these new maps for both race and qualifying. Yet they are quick so it just shows you they dont go aggressive on the throttle rates just for qualifying, especially redbull. If they did their engine would have been toast every mid race. We also know the haven't lost pace so the engine map gains theory is an exaggeration.

If they can still keep 10% let alone 20% thats more than enough to offer some breaking stability.

In the end its just, that braking stability.


Remember the blown diffuser is working at its peak in a fast corners where the driver maybe controlling the throttle but not going completely off throttle.

Quote:"If a driver comes off the throttle, we are saying that the throttles can be 10 per cent opened at 12,000rpm and 20 per cent open at 18,000rpm. One engine manufacturer is asking for a little bit more and for what appear to be genuine reasons.

Thats Charlie Whiting himself stating this.

So the diffuser is not useless on the straights or fast corners, its only into the proper braking zones. Braking zones are not going to make your lap dynamite with these tricks, present or absent. Times are made in high downforce corners. That where the real time comes from. Time comes from the straight-line speeds via DRS a car might have.

Sure you are loosing something, but the point to which its been hyped, is out of pure ignorance. Real professionals are laughing at these people who say otherwise. Like I said team personal are not stupid they are playing you, the press and everyone else who wants to buy into it.

So in the end what does this ban do? Pretty much nothing, the blown diffuser still stays until 2012 when its completely banned in all forms and shape.

For this year it just reduced in the braking zones. While it remains at full 100% when you are on throttle.

Now you can see why Valencia is the glimpse of what to expect come Silverstone. Nothing will change. People are not going to throw their diffusers away. They will just loose a tenth or two from these braking zones. The other numbers thrown out there are just nonsense.

Also Redbull opens its DRS in qualifying much earlier out of a corner's exit, that is where they have the speed gains. FIA's own little gizmo is giving redbull the advantage. In qualifying you have unlimited DRS usage, in the race its only for overtaking.

But that is just one aspect, the design of the car is simply better which is why its fast.

End of story.

Now off-throttle hot blowing is definitely a waste of fuel, you do need to carry more fuel compared to without these fancy maps. When F1 is talking about green tech, this is obviously not a good example for F1 to show.

But the 2012 ban on using exhaust gases while on throttle is very stupid to say the least. If you have an engine you will have exhaust gases. You are letting them go out without being used.

There is this half arsed tech called KERS, why is it even there? FIA's reason, trying to harvest braking energy.

Well then exhaust energy is also significant why not use that as well? You can completely ban off-throttle blowing, but what is the harm in using exhaust gases that will be there anyway for some useful gains?

You can see these moves are all political and nothing to do the F1 going green. just a means to see if they can stifle innovation.

We know well how Ferrari whined about the mass dampers and had it banned trying to win the title. Yet Renault recovered in 2-3 races. It was political.

If F1 is about recycling energy then exhaust gases are also part of that waste recycling process.


EBD standards for Exhaust blown diffuser

[Chrissie]

Cool, thanks for sharing tension

I have to admit to being a geek and loving all this type of stuff....I regret not choosing to study physics in school - I had to study it in my first year in college and surprised myself how much I loved it, I can't help but wonder if I had studied it in school would I maybe have chosen a different career path

Anyways, really interesting stuff tension, thanks again

[WiTcH]

Yeah, thanks a lot for posting and explaining all these things. I am the opposite of Chrissie. I have to study hard to understand these stuff and never liked physics. So, I really admire people who can actually get these things.

[Tension_36th]

Adrian Newey has claimed Redbull will suffer from the loss of blown diffuser.

Take this with a huge pinch of salt as you know well how this works and what is really being banned.

In short Redbull are playing the rivals at their own game. Once they set pace in Britain it will be a humiliation for those who were barking about this technique being the only secret to Redbull's pace.

Nicely played I would say.

More here

[ali786]

It's all over now...the FIA changed the rule to suit Renault & RedBull

http://www.planetf1.com/news/3213/702873...On-Changes

RedBull 1-2 for Silverstone...and it ain't raining on race day.

This is giving Red Bull an even bigger advantage over its rivals, because if it is understood that Red Bull had only been running at 45 per cent throttle flow before the rules clarification was made by the FIA, their Qualifying time and race pace is going to increase.

[Tension_36th]

(07-08-2011 08:21 PM)ali786 Wrote:  It's all over now...the FIA changed the rule to suit Renault & RedBull

http://www.planetf1.com/news/3213/702873...On-Changes

RedBull 1-2 for Silverstone...and it ain't raining on race day.

This is giving Red Bull an even bigger advantage over its rivals, because if it is understood that Red Bull had only been running at 45 per cent throttle flow before the rules clarification was made by the FIA, their Qualifying time and race pace is going to increase.

One word bullshit.

They have never been running 45%, that will blow up the engine chambers even in 15 laps.

Do these clowns even understand basic engine mechanics?

Ali I am writing articles so that you are all better informed on these things. You should laugh off these stupid articles they are not written by people who know anything about designing engines.

Off throttle over run had bee very limited in the first place, It can be possibly used only upto 30-35% for 1-2 laps at best, not the race.

In the race its reduced to very little. Plus this only provides braking stability. The On-thottle exhaust blowing is still at 100% for everyone running such a system.

The key is off-throttle.

Journalists know nothing, period. Lets stop posting garbage that does no one any favors in learning something.

[Tension_36th]

There is one thing though, the whole off-throttle regulation change is a FARCE, its run by bastards in the FIA who think they can rig the title to make it look like a thriller. Everyone is spending money in this area and its being wasted now since they changed the regulations. Its not going to change the title race all it does it waste time and money people have put in across the grid.

Bastards.

In someone can run Charlie whiting and Bernie over with a road roller, they will earn humanity's eternal gratitude.

[Tension_36th]

There seems to be more controversy than initially known, engine makers are getting varying levels of overrun permissions on grounds of safety and reliability. Mainly slow teams like Mercedes Benz are getting a concession on how much they can run.

The numbers put out there like 50% are pure nonsense though, that is press speculation nothing more. The numbers are much lower for a full race distance, but still considerable when they are not equal for all teams.

Redbull are not happy becuase the rules are not the same for everyone, but they are still quicker, but that's not the point. and Mercedes Benz's customer Mclaren claiming Redbull still have an advantage (sour grapes really, when they are actually getting a higher concession)

The rules are changing by the hour within the FIA, this stinks of match fixing, much like in cricket.

Will someone please murder Charlie Whiting and Bernie Eccelstone. We don't need these nazis in F1 anymore they well past their sell dates.

More here

[Tension_36th]

The latest, Mercedes-Benz allowed to run more off throttle over run and everybody else stuck to 10% at 18krpm. Clearly a move to help Mercedes-Benz to get whatever advantage possible. It wont help in anything. But it shows how openly FIA are playing politics here. What a farce.

More here

[Tension_36th]

Emergency session of the TWG called by Charlie Whiting. The bastard has also met with Bernie Eccelstone, like we are really surprised

This idiot has no idea how to sort the mess it has dug up mid season to rig the title race.

The TWG meeting will have a technical rep from every team.

[Tension_36th]

TWG meeting was just over and Renault runner have to stay with the limitations while Mercedes-Benz runners get overrun freedom on the grounds of safety and reliability (bullocks, they say the fear crank case pressures).

The excuse FIA are claiming to be the reason, Renault's engine map info came in too late. When they have been motioning the issue of the past several races. The FIA must be very desperate to help chocolate shit's team to close the gap. Plus to help shoelicker's dropping stock value by the minute.

It still wont be helping the whining Mercedes-Benz runners.

[Tension_36th]

More on this bullshit interpretation.

Guess what FIA has said that if all teams are in agreement they will go back to pre-silverstone regulations which means a Valencia style setup with one engine map for qualifying and raceday.

The only opposition will come from these filthy slow crap teams like HRT and Vrigin. But these clowns could be pressured into submission now that some both them need big team support and inputs for their worthless futures.

What a waste of tie in the first place trying to implement a regulation that had to be done either for next year or at the end of last year. Atleast now they need to hire somebody to just slaughter Charlie whiting and Bernie Eccelstone.

These fools thought they could help Mercedes-Benz runners with this regulation. It only made matters worse with the open bias.

[Chrissie]

I thought the idea was more to hurt Red Bull than to help Mercedes?

[Tension_36th]

(07-09-2011 07:21 PM)Chrissie Wrote:  I thought the idea was more to hurt Red Bull than to help Mercedes?

They are trying to help Mercedes and hurt Redbull yes, but like i said before, nothing will change with Redbull and it hasn't, but Mclaren's problems are something else because they were not quick in the last race as well.

[Tension_36th]

No agreement yet between teams to got back to pre-silverstone regulations on the off throttle engine maps.

Ferrari and Suaber (who are supplied by Ferrari) are opposing it. It was expected rather that most opposition would come from Williams and Cosworth but it turns out they were ready to go back on to pre-silverstone levels.

Ferrari seems to be trying to gain something over Mclaren by going this route, which is why they were silent on the whole issue waiting to see what turns up when the changes was implemented. Typical of Ferrari, when they cant perform on track they try to get something through back rooms deals. Just like the mass damper whining in 2006, only this time they weren't the ones who started this witch hunt, they saw a chance and are now trying to stick with it however minute the gains maybe.

This wont help in the long run, Mclaren will come up with upgrades to solve their problems they faced in Valencia and Redbull are still easily quick.

[ali786]

Ferrari and Sauber have now agreed to go back to the Valencia setups for blown diffusers, so this is finally all over...

So, will Red Bull be 2 seconds quicker again?

[Tension_36th]

(07-10-2011 06:04 PM)ali786 Wrote:  Ferrari and Sauber have now agreed to go back to the Valencia setups for blown diffusers, so this is finally all over...

So, will Red Bull be 2 seconds quicker again?

Nope while no one is discussing this it was a classic case of Redbull running a different setup in this race. they banked on rain and it was not raining for the best part.

You could also say Redbull is using this lack of a win to say they lost it because of the regulation changes, but that just gamesmanship on their part.

They were slow on the fast section of the track, the off-throttle engine maps ban should have made them slower in S1 and S3 but faster in S2. This is because Redbull have inherently more downforce. But the opposite was observed pointing to clear setup difference in prep for a wet race.

Also they haven't disclosed what was the problem for vettel's car since he was short shifting at times in S2 section of the track, they were probably strategically keeping a technical problem with vettel's car hush-hush as long as it was possible. They say after the race it was a KERS issue. Although KERS has influence on how the gear ratios are done and handled. Its not clear how KERS was affecting here more info is needed on the specifics.

From the next race onwards it will be the same as it was here, because in recent races Ferrari have been decent enough if not fastest. This race was a result of the setup redbull went with. S2 times clearly show that.

Teams didnt have to use the hard tyres here since they started on intermediates. This is masking some of the real over all pace for ferrari which would have been lower on the prime tyres.