Tech: Why Aerodynamics Matter–Performance, Safety, Environment!

Video Intro To Cutting Through the Air

In this video, we’ll show you how aerodynamics can impact the performance, safety & environmental impact of your design!

Let’s start with aviation. The most obvious field in aerodynamics. Now the pinnacle of airplane performance is the Red Bull Air Race. Apart from big engines and big balls, aerodynamics determine who wins and who loses.

The Australian Matt Hall Racing team used AirShaper to optimize the airflow around key components of their plane. They won several races that season and nearly took the overall win!

Drones are another hot aviation topic Getting the aerodynamics right is crucial to fly as long and as far as possible on a single battery charge. For its latest model, the eBee X, senseFly ran several AirShaper simulations to optimize the vortex, or the corkscrew motion, of the air at the tip of the wings. By tweaking the vertical winglets together, we increased the aerodynamic efficiency by 30 percent!

Back on the Ground

Aerodynamics also play a key role in performance sports, like cycling or skiing. We used a 3D scan of a speed skier to improve the aerodynamics of his stance & equipment. We helped him take his personal record from 198 kilometer/hour (km/hr) to a whopping 214 km/hr! At those speeds, aerodynamic forces dominate anything else!

But what about safety? Let’s have a look at the Sunfold, a free-standing container equipped with solar panels at the top to capture and store energy! Tiger Power uploaded a 3D model of its entire system into AirShaper and analyzed the forces and the moments caused by the wind to see if would tip over. Luckily, it didn’t!

The next step is to put all that renewable energy to good use, like efficient road transport. We benchmarked the Tesla Semi versus an optimistic generic truck and found a reduction in aerodynamic drag of around 20 percent! That’s over $5,000 of fuel savings each year for a conventional truck, not to mention the reduction in emissions!

So whether you’re cycling at 30 km/hr, transporting cargo at a 100 km/hr or racing at 300 km/hr, aerodynamics matter big time.

The video–https://YouTube/8dI7znDJ1so