Aerodynamical Resistance in Cycling - CFD Simulations and Comparison with Experiments

Luca Oggiano, Lars Morten Bardal, Lars Sætran, Live Spurkland

2015

Abstract

The present work shows a comparison between computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations obtained using the Unsteady Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes solver STARCCM+ from CD-Adapco and experiments carried out in the subsonic wind tunnel at NTNU. The models tested in the wind tunnel (a mannequin and real cyclist in static position) were 3D scanned using a 3D scanner, consisting 48 single-lens reflex cameras surrounding the object in three heights (low/ground-midi-above). A hybrid meshing technique was used in order to discretize the surface and the volume. Polyhedral cells were used on the model surface and in the near volume while a structured grid was used in the rest of the domain. An unsdeady RANS approach was used and the turbulence was modelled using the Menter implementation of the k-? model. No wall functions were used and the boundary layer was fully resolved. The first part of the paper focuses on the mannequin while in the second part the comparison between the experimental results and simulation on the real cyclist are presented. An overall good agreement between the simulations and the experiments was found proving that CFD could be a complementary tool to wind tunnel testing.

Paper Citation

in Harvard Style

Oggiano L., Morten Bardal L., Sætran L. and Spurkland L. (2015). Aerodynamical Resistance in Cycling - CFD Simulations and Comparison with Experiments . In Proceedings of the 3rd International Congress on Sport Sciences Research and Technology Support - Volume 1: icSPORTS, ISBN 978-989-758-159-5, pages 183-189. DOI: 10.5220/0005590101830189

in Bibtex Style

@conference{icsports15,
author={Luca Oggiano and Lars Morten Bardal and Lars Sætran and Live Spurkland},
title={Aerodynamical Resistance in Cycling - CFD Simulations and Comparison with Experiments},
booktitle={Proceedings of the 3rd International Congress on Sport Sciences Research and Technology Support - Volume 1: icSPORTS,},
year={2015},
pages={183-189},
publisher={SciTePress},
organization={INSTICC},
doi={10.5220/0005590101830189},
isbn={978-989-758-159-5},
}

in EndNote Style

TY - CONF
JO - Proceedings of the 3rd International Congress on Sport Sciences Research and Technology Support - Volume 1: icSPORTS,
TI - Aerodynamical Resistance in Cycling - CFD Simulations and Comparison with Experiments
SN - 978-989-758-159-5
AU - Oggiano L.
AU - Morten Bardal L.
AU - Sætran L.
AU - Spurkland L.
PY - 2015
SP - 183
EP - 189
DO - 10.5220/0005590101830189