The crankshaft is perhaps one of the most critical components in the modern Formula One engine; its design is full of compromises and its manufacture is complicated and time-consuming.The ongoing fight to reduce friction leads the designer to ever smaller bearings, but for each engine there is a point at which friction begins to increase again as crankshaft flexibility causes edge loading on bearings. There are a couple of options for bearings, namely the almost ubiquitous plain journal bearing, and the less common roller bearing. Both plain and roller main bearings have been used in Formula One in recent years, although some manufacturers did not find the expected gains with the roller bearing when they tested it. Read more…
Archive for May, 2009
Tribology and Vibration
Tuesday, May 5th, 2009Small end design features
Tuesday, May 5th, 2009
The con rod has a number of important design features and many of these are associated with the design of the small end. The primary function of the con rod is, of course, to transmit the power of the reciprocating motion of the piston to the rotating crankshaft. In this article we shall consider some of the design features of the small end of a modern four-stroke racing con rod and the different solutions to the various problems which must be overcome.
The small end must provide sufficient bearing area to transmit the forces due to combustion Read more…
Dynamometer Testing Facility
Tuesday, May 5th, 2009
RET was recently invited to Jaguar Land Rover’s PCC – Product Compliance Centre – at their Solihull plant to witness the CO2 emissions testing of the 2009 BTCC race cars. Whilst there we had the opportunity to see what goes into a truly world-class vehicle testing facility.The PCC consists of two, four-wheel drive rolling road dynamometers, Cell 1 and Cell 2. Hatton Systems Ltd are responsible for the dynamometer equipment and control systems and Horiba for the gas analyzing technology. Read more…
