Aerodynamic JCB Dieselmax broke land speed record without wind tunnel testing
A few weeks ago, the JCB Dieselmax broke the world land-speed record for a diesel-powered car. For good reason, the posts we wrote on the subject (see below) were quite popular, so I know there's going to be at least some interest in the technical news that the Dieselmax was built using Ansys Technology. Ansys has been making simulation software since 1970, and the Dieselmax's aerodynamic style was designed using the company's Fluent computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software package without any additional wind tunnel testing. One reason was that the Dieselmax is too long for traditional wind tunnels. From a green perspective, using a computer instead of a wind tunnel seems like a good way to save energy, and the results sure speak for themselves.
Related:
- JCB Dieselmax breaks own land-speed record, shoots to 328 mph
- JCB Dieselmax wins Bonneville speed record with 317 mph measured-mile
- Diesel land speed record car makes its first run
- Diesel land speed record
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
TDIMeister 1:26PM (9/14/2006)
"One reason was that the Dieselmax is too long for traditional wind tunnels."
Aerodynamicists should have a field day with this comment. Windtunnel testing is almost exclusively done on reduced-scale models, whether vehicles of diverse shapes and sizes, or wind flow around buildings in an accurately recreated mock cityscape. Do you think full-size 747s are shoehorned into windtunnels?
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