4min chapter

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Aerodynamics and Gravel Cycling

FASTER Cycling

CHAPTER

The Effect of Wind on Aerodynamics

In the wind tunnel, you kind of want to see a range of yaw angles. And so what some people will do is they'll start at minus 20 and then they sweep all the way to like plus 20. But every time you go from zero to 20 on the right or even if you went from zero to20 on the left, the results will always be better than going from starting from a negative 20 and then moving up to zero. The reason for that has to do with the way air flow performs after it has detached from the rim.

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And then we calculated the averages spent at all those yaw angles over a number of different courses. And then what we do is we go to the wind tunnel and we sweep over those ranges. All of those are calculated into a weighted algorithm that then gives you the real world result of what that wheel will save you from an aerodynamic perspective. So there's a lot of studying, there's a lot of calculation, there's a lot of collection, there's a lot of stuff that goes into creating an understanding of what you're going to see from an aerodynamic perspective when you're designing a wheel. So if you think about when you're in the wind tunnel and you're trying to figure out what that protocol is going to be, you kind of want to see a range of yaw angles. And so what some people will do is they'll start at minus 20 and then they sweep all the way to like plus 20. And at some point you hit that zero point. So because the wheel is the same shape on both sides, your immediate guess would be that well, the results from sweeping from minus 20 on the left to zero would be the same as sweeping from zero all the way to plus 20. And the truth is it's they're not. Every time you go from zero to 20 on the right or even if you went from zero to 20 on the left, the results will always be better than going from starting from a negative 20 and then moving up to zero or from a 20 moving back to zero. And the reason for that has to do with the way air flow performs after it has detached from the rim. So let's talk about that a little bit. If you think of air that is attached on a rim, what you get is at zero, it goes around both sides evenly. So we don't really think about that. But the minute that you open up some sort of yaw angle, so let's say you're at five degrees of yaw, there is the side of the rim that is sort of facing the wind and then there's the side on the back, the back half. So that's the one that wouldn't see the air directly coming towards it. So as air moves around the tire and comes around that back half of the rim, that's not directly exposed to the air, your goal as a wheel designer is to have that air stay attached, meaning that it basically turns, it curves, it like sucks its way into that back half of that profile and stays attached that it stays laminar. If the air flow moves around that tire stays connected to the rim and moves around that rim, you're going to have better aerodynamic performance than if it comes around the back half, the tire moving towards the back half of the rim and then isn't able to stay connected, disconnects and breaks off into a turbulent flow. That's going to create poor aerodynamic performance. So when you start at minus 20 degrees to the left, your airflow is already going to be detached. So it comes around that part of the tire. The yaw angle is too steep, it's stalled out like in an airplane wing, it's stalled, meaning that it can't have that, in an airplane it would be lift in a cycling wheel, it's called a side force, so you've moved beyond that point. So the air comes off and it's turbulent as it comes around the tire moving towards the back half of the rim. As you close that angle, at some point you're going to have reattachment of the air. And let's assume for a minute that it attaches at 13 degrees a year, that's where it reattaches back to the rim. Once you hit zero, you're sort of back at that neutral place and as you open up moving towards 20 to the right, you're going to have connected laminar flow all the way through. What air does is once it's attached, it is easier for it to stay attached than it is for it to reattach.

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