Welcome to the Inside Track with ARC. The Auto Research Center is a specialized research facility serving the motorsport, automotive production, commercial, government and bicycle industries. The ARC global headquarters is located in Indianapolis, Indiana which hosts a 50% scale wind tunnel, 7-post, drivetrain test rig, bicycle test facility and CFD cluster center. ARC offers a wide range of solution type packages to further speed and efficiency.
ARC would like to extend congratulations to Andretti Autosport and Bryan Herta on winning the 100th Indianapolis 500, along with their 2nd place finish. Their pace right out of the box on the first day of practice showed development on their aerodynamic program paid off and it puts them in the fast lane for the 101st running next year.
The collaboration between ARC and Indycar on Historical Indy 500 winning cars' Aerodynamics project has produced a vastly popular video. It received 67,000 views by the first week of release, Jon Beekuis' Professor B segment on the study is among the most popular videos of the year on Indycar's youtube channel. If you have not seen it yet, be sure to have a look.
To learn more about ARC's offerings for the Motorsports Industry, visit the ARC website.
The 2016 competitive cycling seasons for all forms is underway, but the race to find an advantage is still at full speed. Most bike fitting and body positioning training takes place in a straight ahead condition, but how often are you really cycling straight? Turns are just as prevalent and it is crucial to get the correct posture to minimize drag. The ARC Aerodynamic Bike Test Rig, has yawing (turning) capabilities. Thus, during a test session at ARC, riders working with their bike fitters can optimize for all real life conditions.
ARC's Aerodynamic Bike Test Facility is open for public use. Test sessions for 6 riders over a 12 hours day is the most cost efficient testing for cyclists. Bike fitters, let your customers know about this opportunity and increase their competitive results using state of the art tools available while keeping individual cost low. Sign up to use the test facility, by clicking here.
To learn more about ARC's offerings for the Cyling Industry, visit the ARC website.
The effectiveness of Adjoint CFD was highlighted in the whitepaper presented by Streamline Solutions, the partnership between ARC and ENGYS Ltd, at the JSAE Conference in May. Adjoint CFD has been rapidly changing the way aerodynamic development is carried out using for simulation and physical testing. Streamline Solutions is the only company in the world to offer quasi-transient Adjoint runs, the ultimate in state of the art topology optimization simulation.
The partnership between ARC and ENGYS Ltd provides a unique benefit to the ELEMENTS CFD software suite. ENGYS Ltd is composed of personnel who participated in writing the core of OpenFOAM™ source code and continue advanced software development beyond what is publicly available, while ARC provides the validation tools and design experience to ensure top correlation between CFD and actual real world results.
To learn more about ARC's offerings for the Production Vehicle Industry, visit the ARC website.
The CALSTART Day at ARC on June 16th was a big success. Members from all over the USA attended and were impressed by the impact ARC has had on the commercial industry. Parts developed and tested at ARC have led to increased safety and fuel efficiency. The dedication of the members attending the conference will help to strengthen the industry as a whole.
For the conference, ARC produced a video on commercial trucking aerodynamics using CFD to help the industry gain a better understanding of how much aerodynamic work can still be done to obtain a highly efficient tractor and tractor shape. Watch the video below.
To learn more about ARC's offerings for the Commercial Industry, visit the ARC website, call 317-291-8600 or email at sales@arcindy.com.
The data needed to complete an adjoint run is similar to data required for a regular CFD run with a few more key pieces of information needed. To start with a 3D CAD, Step, Stl or Obj file is needed for model geometry on which mesh will be applied on and around.
Then, the topology/shape optimization goals are setup for the Adjoint runs. Common goals for exterior body surfaces can be to minimize drag, maximize total, front or rear downforce, and sideforce. Each goal counts as a single Adjoint run. This goal is what Adjoint will solve for and produces plots indicating areas of sensitivities. These show push/pull direction and magnitude on the surface to optimize the aerodynamic efficiency. For internal flows, uniformity is the most used goal and Adjoint automatically morphs the surface into the best shape.
Finally, the accuracy of the Adjoint is set. The exact timing to complete an Adjoint run depends on the vehicle dimensions, level of fidelity and complexity of the geometry. Depending on the accuracy, either 2nd order steady state of quasi-transient, it typically takes between a couple days to just over a week to complete a simulation. This may seem like a long run time, but using regular CFD simulations or physical testing, would take many months to acquire the information Adjoint gives in just a week.
TECH ZONE is an additional area of our newsletter where each month a customer question will be answered by the related expert at ARC. Please send in any questions you might have, from wind tunnel test instrumentation, CFD workings, to tuning your shocks. Ask your questions at techzone@arcindy.com
