SENSORS
employed across motorsport to level the playing field and stop everything becoming a spending race. Keith Duckworth saw all this coming years ago, and argued that rather than issue a car with a set amount of fuel for a race, which produces a pointless economy run before a wasteful dash to the flag, a set rate of flow promotes flat-out racing throughout, because hoarding fuel means extra weight sloshing in your tank.
Formula fuel B
With all the talk of economy in motorsport, restricting fuel flow is undoubtedly the answer. Here’s the solution
alance of performance, success ballast, reverse grids… They’re all methods currently being
BY SAM COLLINS
measurement equipment but, thanks to a chance meeting at the Autosport Show, all that may have just changed. ‘I was walking the show and saw this ultrasonic oil flow meter from Gill Sensors and got talking to the guys
a modern racecar. Exploiting Gill’s long experience of harsh environments, from supplying humble tractors in the early days to today in aerospace and Formula 1, Burston developed the new sensor into a highly versatile device. It is solid state and contains no moving parts, which further helps it withstand the
“a set rate of flow promotes flat-out racing throughout”
EFFICIENT INNOVATIONS ‘Efficiency becomes the primary performance objective,’ says Ben Bowlby, free-thinking creator of the Laurel Hill Tunnel aerodynamic test facility and the Delta Wing. ‘Reducing exhaust heat, friction and unburned fuel in the exhaust pipe will be paramount. It would be simple to slow the cars, and do so in a way that encourages efficient innovations, rather than removing them because they make the cars too fast. But we say, “keep it, just burn less fuel.” That’s the storyline the auto industry wants. The industry has to keep cars desirable, meet government- set emissions targets, and deliver on performance and safety.’ Until recently, the issue had
been the variety of fuels and the lack of truly accurate flow
there about whether it could be used for fuels,’ explains Andrew Burston, an automotive engineer who specialises in alternative fuel solutions for motorsports. The result is the ultrasonic fuel flow sensor.
Mechanical flow meters
do not cope very well with violent pulsed flows, typical of the sort generated by modern fuel injection systems. Those devices that can cope with pulsed flows, such as those used on top end dynos, are kept isolated and could not withstand the vibrations of
tough environments of a racecar’s engine bay.
‘The objective from day one
was to make a sensor that can be bolted into any racecar and be impervious to the harsh environment conditions that entails,’ says Burston. ‘Inside the blue box there is a tube of a particular length and, at each end, there is an ultrasonic transducer. An ultrasound wave is transmitted from one end and, when it is received at the other, it is essentially transmitted back. If there is no flow, the time taken in each direction will be exactly
the same, but if there is flow in either direction there will be a slight difference. As you know the diameter of the tube you can calculate the volume flow rate. If you add a temperature compensation and the properties of your fluid, then you can get to a mass flow rate.’ In Burston’s mind there are
two main types of application where the new sensor could be used. Firstly, by a team simply using it to meter fuel flow for their own information. Secondly, from the wider standpoint as a regulatory device. And with Formula 1, IndyCar and Le Mans all leaning towards fuel flow restrictions, for which of course a reliable, accurate flow meter is required, this is where the real interest lies. ‘We have set up a new organisation to handle this device in a regulatory capacity so, if a series wanted to use it, we would manage distribution and track-side organisation. That would include management and checking at the track.’ The new sensor will be on sale by the time you read this, and has already been track tested in a Le Mans Prototype. It will almost certainly find its way onto a lot more cars in 2012, and could spell the end for artificial measures such as balance of performance.
Where mechanical flow meters fail, the ultrasonic flow meter could excel
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