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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 WELCOMES BACK HTT FOR ADDITIONAL SUPERCAR DESIGN DEVELOPMENT
HTT Automobile, the maker of Canada's fastest supercar, is returning to ARC to continue their vehicle development program. During the first phase of development, ARC used its diverse set of tools to achieve aggressive performance targets that are necessary to compete in the supercar market. The HTT Pléthore LC-750 underwent extensive testing at ARC, resulting in a 21% drag reduction, 65% improved cooling and increased high speed stability. HTT will continue to use a wide range of ARC tools, from their rolling road wind tunnel to world leading quasi-transient adjoint CFD analysis. ARC is looking forward to taking the HTT Pléthore to the next level.
To learn more about ARC's offerings for the Motorsports Industry, visit the ARC website.
ARC "THROUGH AXLE" SYSTEM TEST CAPABILITIES
Because of the growing popularity of the 12 x 1.75 Maxle Rear Axle systems, the ARC Aerodynamic Bike Test Facility has expanded its capabilities to fully accommodate these quick release axle systems. The unique mounting method at ARC allows for different axle sizes, including the current standard of 5mm, to be changed with only minimal effort. To learn more about the test facility, visit the ARC ABT page.
TRENDS FROM THE
2016 SAE WORLD CONGRESS
The 2016 SAE World Congress centered around the theme "Powering Possibilities" and looked at the exploration of future technologies, providing many interesting topics and discussions from all parts of the automotive industry. ARC was well represented, with several members on hand, to participate in several technical sessions. Aerodynamics again took center stage and every year becomes a larger topic of discussion.
Turbulent flow testing held a lot of interest from manufactures. By generating the interactions of the turbulent flow field during testing the next round of drag reduction gains will be found. ARC is working with both its CFD and scale rolling road wind tunnel to explore the potential for drafting testing. We have commissioned a study to generate the appropriate turbulence levels in our test facility to simulate a race chassis in a drafting situation.
To learn more about ARC's offerings for the Production Vehicle Industry, visit the ARC website.
JSAE ANNUAL CONGRESS TO FEATURE JOINT WHITEPAPER BETWEEN ARC AND ENGYS
The Japanese Society of Automotive Engineers (JSAE) is hosting their Annual Congress on May 25-27 in Yokohama, Japan. This highly specialized event brings together experts from around the world to present their research. ARC is pleased to announce that ENGYS will be presenting their collaborative work on CFD developments. This paper focuses on the practical applications of quasi-transient adjoint for a range of vehicles. ARC looks forward towards continuing to advance these leading edge technologies to transform the transportation industry.
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, while ARC provides the validation tools and design experience to ensure top correlation between CFD and actual real world results.
3,000,000 MILES IN COMMERCIAL VEHICLE TESTING
ARC hit a unique milestone this past month, reaching over 3 million miles of commercial scale model wind tunnel testing. Throughout the miles run at ARC, development of fuel saving parts has helped ARC's customers save a tremendous amount of fuel. This has resulted in extensive savings achieved throughout multiple levels of the industry, while also making the trucks more stable with less of a strain on the hard working drivers.
ARC would like to say thanks to all of its customers that helped make this mileage milestone possible. From the development and rapid rise of side skirts to entire vehicle development, such as the Frito-Lay program where a 14% fuel economy savings on a 30mph duty cycle was achieved, the growth of wind tunnel usage for the Commercial Industry is on the rise. ARC looks forward to helping to further increase the efficiency of this industry as the world leader in scale model wind tunnel testing.
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.
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TECH ZONE
I saw that ARC has quasi-transient adjoint available. What does this mean compared to other adjoint methodologies?
Quasi-transient adjoint CFD allows for substantial improvements over 1st or 2nd order steady state adjoint codes. Quasi-transient offers better prediction in sensitive critical areas where flow is dominated by transient turbulent structures. Common examples of these critical areas include: rear quarter panel corners, mirror/A-pillar interaction, underfloor and wheels.
Several studies have already shown that quasi-transient methodologies lead to substantially improved prediction accuracy compared to steady state. This enables aerodynamicists, designers and stylists to better understand air flow throughout all phases of vehicle design.
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
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