You may recall back in March that I covered how the high school team Fastcination won the South-East German F1 in Schools competition with help from Caedium. That regional win qualified Fastcination to compete for the 2012 German F1 in Schools title and now the results from that competition are in. Fastcination recorded the second fastest track time thanks to their low-drag CO2 dragster, aided by the Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations performed by Caedium Professional.

Team FastcinationLeft to right: Steven Klotz, Julian Lemke, Nicola Schrepf, Maria Voss, Merle Schulken, Gregor Matl

Cycling is one of the fastest sports in the Olympics. With that speed comes an increased importance on aerodynamics. In cycling the aerodynamic design is focused on minimizing drag. However, as with swimming, there are carefully crafted rules that ensure there is only a narrow scope for aerodynamic optimization to gain a competitive advantage.

London 2012 Cycling Test EventCredit: London 2012

Given how simple the geometry defining a cylinder is, you'd intuitively think that the air flow around it would also be simple. And as with many things fluid you'd be wrong.

Vortex Shedding Caedium CFD SimulationVelocity vectors (high definition video)

A big draw of any Olympics is the track and field (athletics) events and no less so in London. What effect is the application of fluid technology to these events likely to have? If past Olympics are anything to go by - not much!

Nike Pro Turbospeed Promo Video: Starts at 0:50

With the London 2012 Olympics just around the corner, I thought it would be interesting to review the application of fluid technology to various Olympic sports, starting with swimming.

Men's 200m Freestyle Final - World's Swimming Championship Shanghai 2011No more supersuits

Another helium-filled post - this time it's a helium-filled blimp that houses a horizontal-axis wind turbine [source: gizmag]. Altaeros Energies recently released a video of their prototype Airborne Wind Turbine in action:

Who knew that tetrahedra could fly? I know, pretty much anything can fly when you fill it with helium, but the movement of helium-filled tetrahedra called SmartInversion by Festo gives rise to an interesting and unusual propulsion method [source: gizmag]. Using inverse kinetics, Festo have developed what they call an "airborne geometrical band with inversion drive". The movement is difficult to describe but mesmerizing to watch:

Fishermen at Lake Como, Italy, have shown remarkable knowledge of the complex water currents in the lake. Researchers found [source: Science Mag] that the fishermen's knowledge correlated well with independent observations and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations. The primary means the fishermen use to monitor water currents is by the deformations the currents cause in their large nets once deployed in the lake.

Fishing Net© Copyright Peter Church and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence

In the next version of Caedium you will be able to perform a CFD simulation of a tensile membrane structure and then export surface pressure coefficient (Cp) data for structural analysis in ixForten 4000. This exciting development will allow ixForten 4000 users to perform non-linear stress analysis to better determine membrane displacement with more precise wind pressure loads than previously available, leading to more cost efficient structures and supports.

Membrane Displacement Calculated by ixForten 4000Model: courtesy of SobreSaliente Ltda, Cp data source: Caedium Professional

We are still working on the next version of Caedium and thought it was time to share another update on Caedium v4 progress. This sneak peek highlights the new Caedium cyclic boundary condition along with other enhanced geometry tools that will enable CFD simulations of an idealized axisymmetric centrifugal compressor blade passage for instance.

Compressor Passage CFD Simulation: Iso-Surfaces