CFD Today

Thorpedo also known as Ian Thorpe.

He was the first swimmer to use full bodysuit, Jetconept specially designed by Adidas. Adidas successfully launched their full bodysuit in 1998 and Ian Thorpe started to use this swimsuit in 1999.



The yellow stripes arent designed to make it more appealing and decent. They are riblets. They are designed to reduce dragging effect, streamline movement and prevent turbulent flow in the water. Turbulent flow is inconsistent flow in pressure and velocity. High turbulent affects flowing object yet it will spoil the turbine in a hydro system in industrial application.





There were testings and research being carried out by Adidas design team. A model of Ian Thorpe wearing Jetconcept was placed in wind tunnel to experience air flow. They identified how Jetconcept influenced air flow and find optimal position to further improve the technology.





Application of wind tunnel does not end here. Majority of the automobile industries use wind tunnel to test their concept and prototype. Wind tunnel plays vital role in aircraft company Airbus and even Rolls Royce pioneer in aircraft engines.






This is how the new BMW 3 series testing is carried out in wind tunnel to study the streamline movement and drag effects.




This is model of an aircraft placed in helium-filled wind tunnel to experience air flow.



And NASA have their model plane placed in this wind tunnel to study the same concept.


Why cars during Elvis Presley era were designed in such a way like box shape? And why cars today looks slimmer with low profile? It's easy because of advance in technology. Elvis Presley era might have wind tunnel but slow in time competition. It takes time to actually build a concept model to be tested in wind tunnel. Moreover, it consumes material. Failures create headaches among design team. A successful model is a product of many failure models. Agree? First time model failure will push design team to start all over again to produce second model. How long will it take? How much will it cost? Can the company actually bear the cost of continuous research and development which they havent really commercialise their successful product? The more the failures, the more it cost to develop it.


That's why today we have Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). A computer aided design software to improve our technology. Can CFD actually replace wind tunnel?



This is how F1 car model being designed and studied in CFD. This is graphics of contour pressure and velocity.




Streamline movement of F1 car.


Today, F1 car racing team rely on CFD to develop and improve their car performance. It is cheap compared to testing scaled down model in wind tunnel. However, CFD is still new in F1 arena and will prove its reliablity real soon.


This is CFD in advance application.


My Final Year Project in CFD making me feel great! HAhahahahahaha. although my case is easy but just let me feel proud a second!