Last month, the US bobsled team, “Team Night Train” won the 2010 World Cup Championship – the first time a US team has won that title in 17 years. While much credit goes to the sledders, PCWorld has some sample imagse from the designers of the sled who used cutting-edge computational fluid dynamics simulations and visualizations to design the winning sled.
In this image, the PowerFlow software shows sled designers a computer-generated visualization of complex, turbulent airflow that travels over the centerline of the sled and the four-man crew on a run. The designers with the Bo-Dyn Bobsled Project, which built Night Train’s sled, can then change the design based on the simulations and make adjustments on the fly–much faster than before–to help cut turbulence and make the sled slip through the air more quickly.
See more pictures in the slideshow on their site.
