Discovery Channel Tour de France Team Riding Innovations Powered by Digital Prototyping Platform
Trek Shaves Product Development Cycles with AMD 64 Opteron and CFdesign Upfront CFD Software
|
As highly determined riders advance through its 20-stage course, the 94th Tour de France is both a showcase for athleticism and technology. Among the twenty-one teams on the Tour none is better positioned than the Discovery Channel Team.
The primary source of technology for the Discovery Channel Team comes from Trek Bicycles, a company well known for cutting-edge road, climbing and time trial bicycles. Trek’s unique digital prototyping platform empowers their designers and engineers to push the limits of their knowledge, experience, and imagination to increase the rate and frequency of innovation.
Trek’s digital prototyping platform includes integrated 3-D CAD and CFdesign upfront CFD software running on AMD 64 Opteron-powered HP computers.
As a key member of Trek’s Advanced Concepts Group, Damon Rinard explains the basic digital prototyping process at Trek. “I develop a 3-D concept in CAD then define basic boundary conditions such as inlet velocities, motion, etc. in CFdesign.
I then press the 'GO' button and CFdesign uses the computing horse power to generate highly complex and dynamic mathematical calculations that are displayed on the 3-D CAD model for intuitive visualization of aerodynamic performance. Running on my AMD 64 Opteron powered HP computer this process is 90% faster than my portable work station. Working in tandem with the new CFdesign Accelerant™ solver we’re completing simulation studies in hours that once took weeks.”
Rinard says CFdesign helps him fuel product innovation for the Discovery Channel Team and all Trek riders in four ways:
|
Discovery Team rider Alberto Contador watches as
the team's lead mechanic checks a few dimensions
on his Trek Equinox TTX in between stages of the Tour de France. Photo Courtesy of Trek's Discovery Team Liaison, Ben Coates.
|
1. Quantitative results (drag in grams, etc.)
2. Qualitative results (more or less turbulence, pressure, etc.)
3. Great visualization (where the air is coming from and where it is going)
4. Reduced reliance on physical prototyping and testing during “concept stage” design
No one can predict which rider will emerge first onto the Champs-Elysées or which team will be atop the podium in Paris this 29th of July but it is certain that Trek Bikes and its digital prototyping partners have given the Discovery Channel Team reason for confidence. |