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By Keith Hanna, Fluent News
View the pdf of this article
SportsPulse 3D Scanner being used on Olympic cyclist
Bradley Wiggins by Olympic triple jump world record
holder, Jonathan Edwards
The sports and leisure industry today is a
global $500 billion business. The industry
has seen an increased benefit from CFD
modeling over the years, with applications that
range from Formula 1 racing cars to golf club
design, from ski jumping postures to Olympic
swimsuit materials. Sporting events are
increasingly competitive, both on and off the
field. To ensure that UK athletes have the best
possible edge, a 2M EU Objective 1 Grant
was obtained in October 2003 to launch
SportsPulse in Sheffield, England. Sheffield is
in the South Yorkshire region of the UK, and
has a unique cluster of world-class sports research
groups and leading sports industry companies.
By drawing together this geographical cluster
of sports science, sports medicine, sports
engineering, and sports industry economics
through a hothouse environment, SportsPulse
is aiming to incubate, energize, fund, develop,
and commercialize new and innovative ideas
for athletes and sports of all kinds.
The front fork design (below) currently being optimized for British Cycling for use with a disc front wheel; a handlebar analysis (above) has also been conducted by SportsPulse for British Cycling
SportsPulse is directed by Dr. Steve Haake,
head of the Sports Engineering Research Group
(SERG) at the University of Sheffield, and pioneering
founder of the International Sports
Engineering Association. The SportsPulse
project harnesses the synergies of a cluster of
eight partner organizations in the region, including
Fluent Europe Ltd. in Sheffield. A state-of-the-art 3D scanner and FLUENT software are
components of a leading sports CFD center under development. SportsPulse hosts sports
forums three times each year in South
Yorkshire to promote cross-fertilization of ideas
and technology innovations. In December 2003,
the organization was represented at “Engineering in the Olympics” seminar in London,
hosted by the UK Institute of Mechanical
Engineers. Special guest attendee at the event
was Jonathan Edwards, a physicist by training
and the current Olympic triple jump world champion
and world record holder. He was
intrigued by the combination of modern scanning
technology and CFD software to help
improve the performance of the British
Olympic Cycling Team, represented at the event
by Bradley Wiggins, current world individual
pursuit champion. Dr. Haake’s team is also working
with the British Olympic Sailing, Cycling
and Paralympic teams for the Athens Olympiad.
The team, with its resident CFD expert, Dr. John
Hart, is involved in a wide range of CFD applications
in support of several British Olympic
Performance Directors and is aiming to have
a medal-winning impact in these non-traditional
CFD application areas in Athens.
Fundamental PhD fluid flow research studies
relating to sports using CFD are also planned
for the years ahead.
Contours of surface pressure and water
pathlines for a Yngling Olympic class hull and
keel sailing at a characteristic incidence angle
Water pathlines colored by velocity
magnitude for a Yngling Olympic class hull and
keel, sailing at high incidence angle (tacking)
More Information:
www.sportspulse.org
or contact: info@sportspulse.org
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