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Full-Text Articles in Mechanical Engineering
Bicycle Wheel Aerodynamics Predictions Using Cfd: Efficiency Using Blade Element Method, Drew Vigne
Bicycle Wheel Aerodynamics Predictions Using Cfd: Efficiency Using Blade Element Method, Drew Vigne
Honors Undergraduate Theses
The cycling industry has long relied on expensive wind tunnel testing when designing aerodynamic products, particularly in the context of wheels which account for 10 to 15 percent of a cyclist's total aerodynamic drag. With the recent advent of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), the industry now has an economical tool to supplement the wheel design process; however, the complex nature of rotating spoked wheels requires high resolution meshes to model at acceptable fidelity. This research investigates an alternative CFD method that lowers the computational cost of modeling aerodynamic bicycle wheels by modeling spokes using Blade Element Method (BEM). Two CFD …
Aerodynamic Test Platform For Human Powered Vehicle (Hpv), Spencer Wangerin, Spencer Lillywhite, Colburn Davis
Aerodynamic Test Platform For Human Powered Vehicle (Hpv), Spencer Wangerin, Spencer Lillywhite, Colburn Davis
Mechanical Engineering
The Aerodynamic Test Platform (ATP) for the Cal Poly HPV Club is a system that was designed by Cal Poly mechanical engineering students to measure aerodynamic characteristics of a human-powered vehicle (HPV). The HPV team desired a system that could quantify the lift, drag, and other aerodynamic qualities of a full scale HPV at various orientations in oncoming airflow. Established methods for determining aerodynamic characteristics include computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and wind tunnel testing of scaled models. The ATP was devised to simulate the test results given by a full-scale wind tunnel without requiring a wind tunnel large enough to …