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Bicycle Wheel Simulation

In the world of CFD simulation, maximizing return on investment comes from reducing the cost of analysis while increasing output. With increasing computing resources and powerful solver codes, CFD practitioners are create huge amounts of data. Decisions come only after the volumes of results are analyzed efficiently and accurately. A high-productivity CFD workflow is imperative, both economically and competitively, for exploring multiple designs and complex phenomena within tight design cycles. Intelligent Light's study of the aerodynamics of a bicycle wheel is a powerful demonstration of both the need for and the value of robust, automated post-processing.

Quick decision windows and lots of data make a high productivity CFD workflow imperative, both economically and competitively.

Intelligent Light utilized FieldView in a high-productivity workflow to look closely at the aerodynamics of rotating bicycle racing wheels in a comparative study with these goals:

  1. Elucidate and understand new elements of the complex physics associated with bicycle racing wheels in race conditions. Going beyond the wind tunnel.
  2. Streamlining the CFD workflow learning more from the simulations.
  3. Using FieldView and HPC in both interactive and automated fashion to create new interpretative tools and highly efficient workflows that maximized the available time for the work.
  4. Gain validation of the work from within the bicycle racing product development industry.

The materials available from this project explain what has been accomplished and how. This has become a case study available to all interested in highly productive, automated CFD post-processing and the complex characteristics of bicycle wheels in riding conditions.

"This research matches our experimental data very closely and beautifully explains much of the 'why' that is not explained in raw wind tunnel data. We see various CFD aerodynamics reports all the time and have even been performing our own CFD for some years, but the drag plots never match up to our data - never. This Intelligent Light study does. All the effects outlined in this study are ones that we could measure in the tunnel, but generally could not explain, resulting in a highly iterative and prototype-intensive development process. The ability to understand and design for these effects before we prototype is a major advantage in both wheel performance and time to market."
Josh Poertner, engineer and technical director at Zipp Speed Weaponry


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