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G Force - Sample Chapter CHAPTER 5: Aero Head
After days of going through everything thoroughly, we were confident that the cars were in excellent shape. Rick, however, was always looking for an edge over the competition. Lately, he had been spending a lot of late nights on his three laptop computers. I had a strong feeling that he was working out something new. Still, I knew better than to ask him about it until he was ready. Rick loved to surprise us. Allan, meanwhile, had been busy putting together his own surprise. "Gentlemen,
we have a new engine deal," he announced over tea one afternoon.
"Three weeks ago, I had a call from EuroTech Engineering in France
asking me about our Indy project. It turns out that they are interested
in the 500. I now have an agreement with EuroTech to use their engines
and their management software. I'm rather pleased, actually," he
said with a bright smile. He had every right to be pleased. EuroTech
had a well-earned reputation for building engines that were tough as
anvils while delivering enormous power and excellent fuel mileage. Just
what we needed for 500 miles of full-throttle racing. "Wow, I'm seriously
impressed," said Herb. "EuroTech has built awesome engines
for some Formula 1 teams, but I don't think they've ever done Indy."
"Quite right,"
Allan replied, "which is why they contacted us. I told them that
we had some interesting new ideas. So, after a bit of negotiation we
struck a deal. They're going to assign one of their engineers to work
with us here, and we should see our first shipment of engines arriving
just after Christmas." "Wait a second.
Sounds like there's some stuff going on that we haven't heard about
yet. Is that right, Brainiac?" Herb asked, looking directly at
Rick, who was tapping out some commands on his laptop. "Well, yes,"
Rick replied. "I wasn't sure if it was going to work at first,
so I didn't want say too much, but I think I've got it figured out now." Rick turned his
laptop so that we could all see the screen clearly. The display showed
a large, lime-green blob that changed shape as it slowly floated across
a black background. "Cool retro
screen saver, Rick," I said. "It's kind of a lava lamp thing."
"Yeah, I know what you mean, Eddie," he replied. "When I wrote the code for this application I didn't expect it to look so squishy. Anyway, forget what it looks like. What this is really about is computational fluid dynamics or CFD for short. I've set this software up to analyze how a solid object behaves when it moves through the air. It figures out all of the pressures and speeds on and around whatever object you choose. The air is this green blob, and here is an object." Rick tapped a few
keys and a silver three-dimensional model of an Indy car appeared in
the middle of the floating blob. A few more clicks and the blob changed
into a smooth stream of green liquid flowing past the car. "I've worked
out how to compress the information and convert it to graphic form,"
added Rick. "So now, not only do I get the numbers, but I can also
actually see how much lift and drag this model creates as it moves through
the air stream model at say, 250 miles an hour." "Wow, that'll
be handy for Indy drivers when they hit a patch of green Jell-O on the
back straight," Herb remarked. "Hilarious as usual, Herb," Rick replied coolly. "Remember: the green fluid on the screen is simply air-let's say Indianapolis air. I can put a model of our car, or any part of it, into this stream and see how it reacts in fast-moving air. We can tell how aerodynamic it is. It works with any object." With a mischevious grin, he grabbed the computer mouse. "Allow me to
provide a short demonstration. Now, let's see. I need to find something
really thick and dense." A moment later, he leaned back from the
screen. "Perfect,"
Rick said. Rick had cropped
Herb's head out of one of our team photos, converted it into a three-dimensional
model, and placed it in the middle of the green stream. "Now as you
can see, at a speed of thirty miles per hour, old Herb is pretty aerodynamic.
The air stream flows smoothly around him. No turbulence. But as we accelerate
the air speed to say, 100 miles per hour-well, now things aren't very
smooth at all. The air is swirling around everywhere and the pressures
on the graphs are much higher. Notice that Herb's glasses have blown
away and that his eyelids are starting to peel back. He is not getting
through the air at all well." "I guess I'm
just not an aerodynamic guy," Herb growled. "No, Herb you're not," Rick agreed. "And I predict that it will get a lot worse as the speed goes up." Three more clicks and we were at 250 miles per hour. It was scary. "At this speed,
Herb has some very severe aero problems. His lips and cheeks have been
blown back close to his ears. His nose has been flattened and, yes,
we can see his hair is blowing away in small patches. But also look
at what the air around him is doing. We now have major turbulence as
the air tries to get around his head. Very unstable." "So, Herb,
do you want to go for 300? You might look good as a bald guy,"
I said. "I think that
will do for now, lads." Allan grinned and slowly closed the lid
of the laptop. "Rick has done a fine job for us here. With this
software, we have a way to design our car on the computer, model how
it moves through the air, and actually see what it'll do at any speed
up to 250 miles per hour. We can design parts that create the best combination
of lift, drag, deformation, pressure, and so on before we actually build
anything for real in the shop." "But if we
don't get to build and test these new parts, where's the fun in that?"
Herb asked. Rick polished his
glasses as he answered. "The fun comes in not having to build stuff
that won't work, Herb. Say that we spent weeks building a truckload
of different wings, undertrays, and side pods that we think might be
good. But we can't really know until we test them out on the car. So,
we take them all to the track, bolt the first one on the car, send Eddie
out, collect the data, bring him in, ask him what he thinks, take it
off, put on the next one, and do that over and over again until we find
the one that works. If we're lucky. In the end, they might all turn
out to be useless." "And your software
solves that?" I asked. "It should.
With this program, we can build and test dozens of designs in a few
weeks instead of months. If the design doesn't work on the computer,
then we know that it's not going to work for real. So, we simply delete
it and try something else. We can figure out the best combination from
the software models first. Then you can actually make parts that we
know will work." Rick had been looking
for an edge for us and he'd found it. Again. We would be able to arrive
at Indy in May with a superbly aerodynamic car-and at over 200 miles
per hour, that kind of structural advantage would be of critical importance.
Like aircraft wings
in reverse, a race car's wings, undertray, and side pods work together
to generate the downforce necessary keep the car firmly planted on the
track. Without enough downforce, the car can lose grip and, in a heartbeat,
crush itself against the thick concrete wall that rings every inch of
the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. An impact at that speed isn't the sort
of accident that many drivers walk away from. With Rick's new computer-simulation
approach, I wouldn't have to find out the hard way what would work and
what would not. "OK, I'm sold," Herb said as he got up from the table. "Just one thing, Rick. Put my head back." © Anthony Hampshire, All Rights Reserved |
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To
my relief, Rick kept his word and he dove straight into the challenge
of preparing our three cars. It takes about 70,000 parts to build a
complete Indy car and each one of them has something important to do.
But it only takes one or two of them to fail before something goes wrong.
We left nothing to chance and stripped each car right down to its basic
carbon-fiber tub, checking all the parts and making lists of what needed
to be replaced. |
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