Wind Tunnel Data Analysis and Drag Reduction Study of Cyclists

摘要

When wind flows over a human body, it may cause flow separation on the body surface and a wake region is formed behind the body. The main source of drag is the difference between the pressure before and after the body and it is called the pressure drag. The aim of this study is to achieve drag reduction by changing the surface roughness of the fullscale cyclist model in dropped position. Different roughness patterns that were placed on a full-scale cyclist model and cycling jerseys were tested in wind tunnel experiment to realize the impact on drag reduction. Comparing the Cd values of the reference case without roughness patterns and a number of cycling jerseys under the same Reynolds number shows that the best drag reduction of about 7.5% in the cycling jersey experiment. This finding evidences the drag crisis occurred in the case of the cyclist model with jerseys.