In my younger days, when fuel injection was but a luxury and the roads were less crowded, the journey to work was always so much more enjoyable in the foggy early morning light than at any other time. The engine in my transport - a high-compression ‘A’ series unit, tuned ever so close to (and sometimes beyond!) combustion ‘knock’ - would run totally free of detonation and be a joy to drive around the twisting country roads where I lived.
As a development engineer I put this down to the water Read more…
Now that kinetic energy recovery systems (KERS) are back on the agenda in Formula One and Le Mans prototypes, it’s a reminder that a flywheel is not only a convenient place to attach the clutch, it can also be used to store energy. As well as electric motor/generator systems, several other KERS units have incorporated flywheels running in a vacuum.
I’m sure we’ve all been accused of it at some time - the compulsive desire to have things just the way we want them, with little or no compromise. Perfection is the goal, anything else is a poor second best and, except in the case of pure genius perhaps, it is often considered a major flaw in one’s character. But in the world of engine dynamometers, control is everything.
The definition of an engine is apparently “a machine that converts power into motion”. This may be true in its widest sense but when it comes to rotary outputs, I like things to be more precise. Far be it from me to contradict the Oxford English Dictionary, but in its basest form surely an engine is “a machine that converts torque into motion”?
Perhaps the most common word used today in engineering is ‘optimise.’ Now, my memory may be a little bit selective, but until about 20 years ago the word was rarely used. But I have a theory. In the past, engineers were probably far too busy concentrating on getting things to work in the first place than working to their optimum, or perhaps it’s because today’s engineering ‘tools’ - and by that I mean software - are far more discriminating, allowing finer degrees of control. Or perhaps it’s a combination of both. Even so, when it comes to 
Amid all the hype over the past few years of Global Warming or as it has been re-branded now, Climate Change, it won’t surprise anyone that motorsport has come in for its own fair share of criticism. Viewed by some as a waste of resources, the sport is now fighting back and where once the word ‘power’ was king, ‘efficiency’ now replaces it. But from a motorsport perspective, ‘efficiency’ can mean many different things but in the final analysis and in today’s world it all comes down to one thing - fuel consumption or as the politicians would now 
The most common type of engine dynamometer today used by engine builders the world over, must be the eddy current machine. But few will ever forget, of those who ever used them, the DPX water brake. Made by Froude in Worcester, England since shortly after the turn of the (20th) century, and once to be found gracing some out-of-the-way engine test facility at University, to many this would be their introduction to the subtle art of engine testing. Classed as a fluid friction device, resistance to the torque of the engine is offered by a combination of shaft bearing friction, 
Believe it or not measuring the precise output from a reciprocating engine has always been a controversial and sometimes, difficult task. Even in the confines of the engine test cell, day-to day repeatability can often be onerous not to say expensive and so it is easy to understand why many competitors may prefer to test their engine while it remains in the vehicle - on a chassis dynamometer.
With the ban on in-season testing, one of the greatest increase in uses of any other testing equipment is that of the power train transient dynamometer. Costing millions of pounds to buy and even more to run, these are used to simulate precisely the events experienced by the engine and transmission as if it were installed in a vehicle circulating around the track. Controlling not only the engine speed and load but just about every other parameter you can think of – air temperature and humidity, oil temperature, fuel temperature, not to mention the shock loading directly as a result of changing gears, the dynamometer system also tries to simulate 
Today is the first of many strikes, or so we are told. The continuing dispute between management and unions in the Post Office has resulted in this, the first of a number of planned one-day stoppages across the UK on which the mere thought of reaching for an envelope and putting pen to paper is but the last thing on my mind. As engineers however, ‘addressing the envelope’ has an altogether different meaning. Other than a flat paper container with a sealable flap, to engineers an envelope is a containing structure or a boundary beyond which we stray only at our peril. 
