On-road and wind tunnel aerodynamic study of human powered vehicles

The aim of the Royal Automotive Club of Victoria (RACV) Energy Breakthrough annual event is to provide an opportunity to school students to design and develop human powered vehicles (HPVs) and race a nonstop 24 hours event that requires energy conservation, endurance and reliability. The event involves primary and secondary school students, teachers, parents and local industry to work together on the design and use of energy efficient vehicles. The key areas with interest of HPVs are the significance of aerodynamic design and ways to improve overall aerodynamics as most HPVs are designed with minimal or no aerodynamic consideration. Therefore, the primary objective of this study is to examine the aerodynamic behaviour of two production HPVs of variable designs using on-road, wind tunnel experimentations and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) modelling. The study shows that the aerodynamic efficiency of vehicle largely depends on external shape especially the extrusion, gaps and bumps. The useful data can be obtained and utilized using wind tunnel and on-road tests for HPVs if a close replica along is used.