HUMAN POWER TEAM

The extremely aerodynamic VeloX9

Charlotte Iványi, Aerodynamics Engineer, Human Power Team
STUDENT PROJECT

Currently, the World Human Powered Speed Record for women is set at windy due to the surrounding mountains.
121.8 km/h by the French Barbara Buatois. The goal of the Human Power Moreover, the road is straight, wide and
team is to break this record, which will be attempted this September during 10 km long, making it suitable for speed
the World Human Powered Speed Challenge in Nevada. The aim is to do this tests.The race starts with someone holding
using an extremely aerodynamic and efficient bike. the bike for the first 15 m, giving the athlete
a leg up. After that, there is 8 km to gain the

T
he Human Power Team was set up
in 2009, and this year we created our
ninth bike: the VeloX9. Our team con-
sists of twelve full-time members in Delft and
four part-time members studying movement
sciences at the VU Amsterdam. The part of
the team in Delft is responsible for the engi-
neering and management of the team, while
the team in Amsterdam is responsible for
the selection and coaching of the athlete,
optimally preparing the athlete for the race.
The interdisciplinary aspect of the team
has many advantages, as the differences in
knowledge and experience often comple-
ment each other. More creative solutions are
found due to the different perspectives our
team members have on the problems that
we are facing. For example, it is difficult to fit
everything into the bike, since the aerody-
namic engineers desire a bike that is as small
as possible. On several occasions, parts of
the bike desired by other divisions did not
fit anymore. The different perspectives en-
sured that all the needed components were
fitted quickly, still ending up with a bike that's
as small as possible, but in this case with all
the crucial components.
The race will be held at Battle Mountain, Ne-
vada, due to its pristine conditions; it is at an
elevated attitude, thus having lower pressure
and therefore, less drag. It is also not very
maximum speed. Only over the last 200 me-
ters is the speed measured.
DESIGN
To build on the knowledge of the previous
years, we started with the design of the Ve-
loX 8 and adjusted the existing shape in or-
der to fit our athletes by iterating the shell de-
sign. Every shell we designed was simulated
using CFD for analysis in aerodynamics. The
results were analyzed and compared with
previous designs. During a design phase of a
bit more than 1.5 months, we designed 240
shells in Catia.
However, eight years of designing a VeloX

26 N°1 2019 LEONARDO TIMES


HUMAN POWER TEAM
has made the design quite well optimized.
It is thus a big challenge to keep innovating
in order to achieve the last few extra km/h,
aiming for our goal of 125 km/h. In order to
achieve our goal, this year’s focus was, apart
from improving the aerodynamics, also on
reducing weight. We changed the carbon
fiber layup of the shell in a smart way, and
by doing so reduced the weight without de-
creasing the stiffness of the shell. Another
example is the front fork that, by using ad-
vanced FEM software, has now a more ef-
ficient shape, thereby reducing the material
needed.
As a window would not be very aerodynam-
ic, a camera bubble is placed on top of the
bike and there are two screens within the
bike for the athlete to see where she is going.
As the athlete has to be able to perform opti-
mally, there is an air exchange system in the
bike. The athlete wears a mask that directs
the CO2 she breathes out, out of the bike, and
through a hole in the wheel fresh air enters
the bike. The tires are developed in collabo-
ration with an external company to minimize
the friction drag and rolling resistance.
Due to the high speeds, safety is a very im-
portant aspect of the design. The frame of
the bike is designed to withstand high loads
and will protect the athlete in case of a crash.
Moreover, we made it possible to have
a direct sound connection between the
coaches and the athletes during the race,
something the other participating teams do
not have. This allows the coaches to talk to
the athletes during the race and give them
orders about the race plan and updates on
how they’re doing.
AERODYNAMICS
Logically, the goal of the aerodynamic shell
analysis is to minimize drag. For this, laminar
and attached flow are the two main goals.
Flow separation is undesired, as when the
flow separates, the difference in pressure
between front and back of the bike in-
creases, also known as pressure drag. On
the other hand, laminar flow generates less
drag than turbulent flow because of the tur-
bulent boundary layer being thicker than a
laminar one, increasing the skin friction drag.
The laminar boundary layer is very smooth,
whereas the turbulent one contains swirls
and eddies. Hence, laminar flow is desired.
However, laminar flow is less stable than
turbulent flow, which also means the flow
is more likely to separate. This means that a
sweet spot has to be found between lami-
nar flow and flow attachment: designing for
as much laminar flow as possible without
separating. This is achieved by pushing the
transition point from laminar to turbulent flow
as far back as possible and eliminating flow
separation.
To be able to compare different designs,
the product of drag coefficient Cd and area
A (CdA), the pressure coefficient (Cp) and
the skin friction coefficient (Cf) are looked
at. For the Cp and Cf, the distribution over the
surface is interesting. We don’t want an ad-
verse pressure gradient (positive Cp gradient
over shell), as by increasing the pressure,
the potential energy of the boundary layer
increases and thus the kinetic energy de-
creases. A decrease in kinetic energy means
the flow decelerates. The flow on the inside
of the boundary layer is slower and is thus
more affected, so if the pressure increases
too much, the flow could decelerate to zero
or become reversed. The consequence of
this is flow separation which increases the
total drag drastically. For the Cf we want the
distribution over the shell to be as smooth
as possible. Changes in Cf are caused by
the curvature of the shell, and it can thus be
used to find irregularities in the shell. We do,
however, want the camera bubble in a turbu-
lent region as it creates less drag that way, as
a camera bubble in a laminar region would
cause the flow to separate as laminar flow
is less stable. This usually solves itself as the
small gap between the front and back shell
(called splitline) causes the flow to become
turbulent.
While all these parameters can be simulat-
ed, analyzing flow separation is still difficult
as it happens on a very small scale. Current
turbulence models can only simulate this to
a certain extent. The results are approxima-
tions and it varies per model on how close to
reality they are. We use a CFD model based
on the Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes
(RANS) equations, and the k-omega turbu-
lence model, which is the best RANS model
to simulate separation with. Our simulations
take, on average, 150CPUh (we simulate
on two or four nodes with sixteen cores, so
it takes eight or four hours in real life). Flow
separation could be analyzed more precise-
ly if we used Large-Eddy Simulation (LES),
a different CFD model. For this model, the
computing time would, however, be a few
thousand CPUh (or even more). As this is
very time consuming and the results are still
an approximation of reality, it was chosen
not to do this. In the end, knowing if the flow
is going to separate is therefore, for a large
part, based on experience. Even more, sim-
ulations are run under perfect conditions
(smooth road, no vibrations in the bike, per-
fectly smooth surface), whilst in real life the
bike can, for example, hit a tiny stone on the
road generating a small vibration. This small
vibration can already affect the flow.
To take this into account in our design, we
designed our shell with safety margins.
An example of this is the “tail” of the shell.
A steeper tail decreases the drag, as extra
LEONARDO TIMES N°1 2019 27
 pressure is created improving the pressure

HUMAN POWER TEAM

recovery. However, if the tail is too steep, the
flow separates. In our final design, we did not
choose the tail that was exactly moderate
enough for the flow not to separate, but one
that was a few angles less steep to include
the safety margin.

PRODUCTION
Once the design is completed we start the
production phase. The main structural com-
ponents of the bike are made from a carbon
fiber composite, produced by infusion for the
shell and pre-preg for the frame and chair.
Our molds are made by an external compa-
ny, as the precision required is very import-
ant and due to their size, we cannot produce
them using the machines in the Dream Hall.
To lower the costs and weight of the molds,
the core is made out of Styrofoam. The
shape and finish of the molds are created by
a layer of "milling paste" and several layers of
coating on top of the styrofoam. Infusion of-
fers good results and so we choose that as

HUMAN POWER TEAM

our production method. For the frame, we
switched from infusion to pre-preg this year,
which could be an option for the shell as well
next year.

The layup of the shell is an important deci-

sion during this phase; the shell has to be
strong enough and at the same time be as
light as possible. For this, we do a lot of re-
search and try to talk to as many profession-
als as possible. We produce one back shell
and four front shells. One front shell is made
purely for training purposes. In this way it
does not matter if it gets damaged, which it
will as the athletes tend to fall a lot at the be-
ginning due to the instability of the bike. An-
other shell is the sponsor shell, having stick-
ers on it with partner logos for use in events.
Finally, the last two shells are race shells, be-
ing completely white and perfectly polished.
The production of these shells is done most
precisely, as every little unevenness results
in a decrease in velocity.
HUMAN POWER TEAM

In the final testing phase, the bike with all

the shells is tested in the wind tunnel in the
open jet facility at the aerospace faculty in
TU Delft. Simulations will be compared with
real-life data to see which simulation condi-
tions satisfy real life best. Additionally, it will
be checked where transition and separation
occurs. The results won’t be used to improve
the design for this year, but it is very important
for the future designs.

In the coming months the focus will thus lie

on production and preparing simulations for
the wind tunnel test. In September it will be
clear whether the record will be beaten and
the HPT can hold the World Human Power
Speed record.

Any suggestions or questions to the human

power team can be send to info@hptdelft.nl

28 N°1 2019 LEONARDO TIMES