They’re known as ‘weight weenies’ – those competitive cyclists who obsess over the weight of their bikes and its componentry. They reason the lighter the bike, the faster the ride.
And while that may be true, when it comes to speed, aerodynamics plays an arguably bigger role.
“The average person doesn’t necessarily quite grasp how important the aerodynamics of a bike are,” said Nick Pratt, MESc’13. “A lot of people are overly obsessed with the weight of their bike, which is important. But you’re looking at a pretty significant gradient (hill) before weight trumps aerodynamics. In almost all your riding situations – unless you’re a pure climber – you’re gonna be far more interested in the aerodynamics of the bike and the rider than anything else.”
And Pratt’s definitely interested. Along with his colleague Kien Lamson, he has been working in Western’s Boundary Layer Wind Tunnel Laboratory (BLWTL), looking to improve upon both the structural aerodynamics of a bike, as well as the aerodynamics of the rider.
Pratt and Lamson work at Toronto’s Indeo Ideas, a consultancy firm specializing in composites and fluid dynamics research and development. The start-up is led by Western Engineering graduates. Pratt and Lamson recently received an Engage Grant from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) which supports new research collaboration with an industrial partner through a short-term research and development project that applies academic expertise to address a company challenge.
The Indeo team has been working with Engineering professor Greg Kopp (Pratt’s former supervisor) on bicycle aerodynamics in the wind tunnel. One of their goals is to find more aerodynamic shapes for bike components by doing tunnel testing.
“Pretty much every brand is making aero bike products. At some point during the development cycle, they will do aerodynamic testing. For that, they need a facility and the facility ideally should not be far away, and not that expensive to access,” Lamson said.
But facilities like BLWTL are hard to come by in this part of the world.
“We’ve been involved in the bike design industry for a while,” Lamson continued. “There’s a bit of a hole in terms of facilities available for bike designers, or brands designing bikes, in the local area and serving the north east in North America. We thought the tunnel seemed like a good fit, and (with this research) we can either design new products or allow athletes to get into the tunnel to refine equipment or refine positions.”
A lot of commercial brands outsource design of their bikes or hire consultants to help with aerodynamics, the pair noted. Indeo – particularly after this project – is able to lend a hand in the design process.
The frame, designed by Indeo and tested inside the wind tunnel, has nodes all over it, each port measuring the surface pressure on the model. The surfaces are rapid prototype surfaces, which are quick and easy to make and are what some may refer to as 3-D printing models, Pratt explained. This means the design is in a modular state, making adjustments easy and fast, and their effects easier to identify.
“We are looking for high-density surface pressure measurements in the wind tunnel,” he added, noting the team’s construction of the test space around the bike allows them to change the angle of the rider’s attack, adjust for turbulence, and even perform comprehensive testing with a rider on the bike.
“The (data) gives us output at each of the pressure locations (ports). There is a sensor underneath that gives six different force readings depending on how the bike is moving around in the tunnel. This project will give us a lot of insight, that as far as we know isn’t out there at the level of the bike in these conditions,” Lamson said.
He noted a major brand known in the cycling world for being among the top in aerodynamic bike designs only tested load in its wind tunnel testing, not the surface pressure directly. The Indeo team appears to be the first doing this kind of testing, Pratt added.
Combining the results of this project, with the design expertise Indeo has to offer, could be a big plus for potential commercial partnerships, Lamson noted. The team has made several contacts in the field already.
“People don’t necessarily know it, but we have, in this part of Ontario, and a part of Quebec, a fairly robust cluster of design and scientific expertise in the bike industry, and in the composites and aerodynamics industry for sport equipment. Part of this is to contribute to that centre of excellence that’s starting to build. This can only get stronger,” Lamson said.