Aerodynamic drag between two cyclists: OverPressure push and effect of wheel rotation
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: • The novelty in this paper lies in the combined study of the overpressure push and wheel rotation by CFD means. Overpressure push has been slightly investigated by studies from Blocken et al. (2013) and Barry et al. (2015) but only with a static model whereas the effect of wheel rotation has an important impact as investigated Malizia et al. (2019, 2020, 2021). • The use of realistic geometry of the 3D scan from a professional athlete with her equipment allow a good representation of the aerodynamic interactions in race conditions. • To be more realistic, these studies would also need to implement pedaling movement. As a first step, our study focused on the implementation of wheel rotation and compared its results with those already available in the literature. In a second step (next publication), we will implement the pedaling motion of a realistic model in addition to wheel rotation. This progressive approach, starting with wheel rotation, represents an advancement over previous studies and adds significant novelty. Based on previous scientific findings about Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) modeling of rotating wheels and the aerodynamic interactions between two cyclists riding one behind another, this article aims to compare and combine the effect of both parameters. The aerodynamic drag of two identical models of female track cyclists was simulated in static and with simulated wheel rotations through a validated CFD approach. Two sets of eleven simulations with and without wheel rotation at a wheel-to-wheel distance between the two bikes ranging from 5 centimeters to 5 meters were carried out. Results show that wheel rotation on an isolated cyclist model with his bike and equipment has a 3.6% larger drag than the same model without wheel rotation. Furthermore, at the usual wheel-to-wheel distance of 0.15m, two cyclists, one behind the other show a 4.3% drag reduction for the leading cyclist and 27.9% drag reduction for the trailing cyclist compared to an isolated one. The overall drag is higher with wheel rotation than without it but the gain from OverPressure Push (OPP) and drafting stays similar. These results suggest the implementation of wheel rotation and accurate 3D geometry in future CFD cycling models to make them more realistic.
Source: Results in Engineering
Authors: Sébastien Térol, Antony Costes, Sébastien Ricciardi, Emmanuel Brunet, Georges Soto-Romero
Language: English
Subfield: Aerospace Engineering
Field: Engineering
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $1,940
OpenAlex ID: W4402346160