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e-NEWS - April
A quiet revolution for the Ford Fiesta
The received wisdom that small cars are noisier cars seems to only be half true (it may be received but it no longer seems to be wisdom) in light of the latest aerodynamic developments gained by Ford engineers developing the new Fiesta model.
If the claims of the guys from Ford are true, they have managed to overturn the old axiom that small cars deliver better fuel economy but are no match for larger, heavier vehicles when it comes to quietness inside the cabin. And they have done this not by any miracle solution but simply by the intelligent application of engineering know how to data gained in a variety of ways including wind tunnel tests.
Enhancements made to the Fiesta interior noise control package include:
1. Acoustic-laminated windshield, reducing wind noise;
2. Wind tunnel-optimized side-view mirrors, reducing wind noise;
3. Stiffened door modules, reducing the potential for rattles;
4. Rear-mounted roof antenna for less wind noise and improved aerodynamics;
5. Wind noise-optimized grille;
6. Additional sound-absorbent material throughout the cabin for a quiet interior;
7. Revised door seals for reduced wind noise.
Applying technology to intelligence
In developing the ZEFIRO train, its latest solution to the need for very high speed (VHS) rail transport, Bombardier could not simply apply the best aerodynamic data. Trains are also subject to a host of other demands and influences that must be accommodated in the design. Fortunately, colleagues at Bombardier Aerospace had developed a tool, AeroEfficient, which enabled rail vehicle design engineers to optimize crosswind stability, aerodynamic drag and pressure pulses. Advanced aerodynamics and energy-saving technologies make ZEFIRO the world’s most energy-efficient VHS train with minimum aerodynamic resistance and up to 12% savings over the energy consumed by standard-design trains.
Wind tunnel testing wins Olympic Gold
As if to demonstrate the growing importance of technology in sport, Great Britain’s solo gold medallist, Amy Williams praised the technological input to design of her Skeleton Bobsleigh. With over 200 hours of wind tunnel testing in the four years leading up to Vancouver, every precaution was taken to ensure Williams was in the optimum aerodynamic position to reach speeds of over 143km/h.
Williams commented; "I'm really grateful to all the scientists and engineers at the University of Southampton and BAE Systems who helped make me and ‘Arthur' such a successful team."
Head of Research and Innovation at UK Sport Dr Scott Drawer believes this technological advantage helped to strike fear into Williams' competitors, especially after they saw the times the 27-year-old clocked in the training runs leading up to the event.
"Our job is to seek out that extra tiny drop of performance from Britain's best athletes as we aim to help them be among the best prepared, and most feared by their competitors, when they reach the start line," said Drawer.
"We couldn't do this without input from our partners in industry and academia who can apply their varied knowledge and expertise to the increasingly sophisticated world of high performance sport."
The half mile high club
The Burj Dubai is the world’s tallest building; a superlative in a land where superlatives have been the norm in recent time – other wonders of the Dubai world include a palm-shaped island, a ski slope inside a shopping mall and a skyscraper where Roger Federer and Andre Agassi played a tennis match hundreds of feet above the ground. To build the Burj Dubai (it only means ‘Dubai Tower’) required engineering solutions that pushed at all the limits of the known structural stability envelope and it was Chicago architect Adrian Smith and his former colleagues at the Chicago office of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) who tested those limits.
This was the first time that anyone had built this tall, so there was no body of knowledge on how the wind would affect a structure at 2,000 feet and above. SOM worked with Ontario, Canada consulting engineers RWDI who got their meteorological data from weather balloons. To include extreme weather conditions in the calculations, past storms were recreated using computer models before RWDI put a five foot model of the building in a wind tunnel. They then arrived at a striking conclusion that the Burj Dubai should be turned 120 degrees, to line up its most wind prone face with the direction where it would be least likely to be buffeted by the desert wind storms known as the shamal. The change also saved money, by avoiding the need for a bulkier, more expensive structure.
Main feature
Big wind blows new life into hard hit city
In a world’s first, and a demonstration as to how technology developments can be used to benefit the communities in which they are sited, Oshawa’s (Ontario, Canada) new $123 million Automotive Centre of Excellence, will feature a five storey wind and weather tunnel when it opens in late summer 2010. This joint venture between GM and the University of Ontario Institute of Technology will not only bring cutting edge capability to the hard hit city but will also create 35 jobs plus offer students a state of the art research and testing facility.
John Komar, GM’s operation manager for the centre explained; “A facility like this can only help the region... This is a large commitment that is in partnership with the community.” Komar also said that the tunnel can test everything from a car to a train in wind speeds of more than 240 km/h and in temperatures ranging from -40 C to 60 C as well as simulate a snowstorm, rain or a scorching sun. He continued, “It will offer a full range of testing facilities under one roof [with] some of the largest and most sophisticated wind tunnels on the planet.”
Low cost research in the ‘ignorosphere’
The region between 50 and 100 kilometres above the earth’s surface has hitherto been little explored; being too far up for conventional aircraft yet not high enough to sustain normal space craft in orbit. Because of this challenge, it has been dubbed, and only partly in jest, the ‘ignorosphere’. However, with the advent of space tourism such as the service to be launched by Virgin Galactic and XCOR, a low cost means of conducting experiments in the region may soon be available.
While at $100,000 a ride, space tourism might be classed as pricey for a leisure pursuit, it represents very good value for money for scientists who wish to carry out experiments in the region of the atmosphere above the stratosphere and below the thermosphere.
Suborbital vehicles such as Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo will offer ‘space trips’ for six passengers and will carry two pilots but will also contain a large cabin with room to conduct experiments involving both a human subject and a researcher. Among other things, human physical responses to spaceflight can be tested as the basis on which exercise programmes for astronauts can be designed to counteract or minimize the negative impacts of spaceflight on the human body.