Windshear Rolling Road Wind Tunnel

K

KingGlamis

Guest
I'm sure some of you know about this but for those that don't I thought I would share. This is really cool. From what I read Gene Haas had a hand in creating this.

 
Very interesting. This is what wiki says....

In January 2008 Wind Shear, a division of US machine tool builder Haas Automation, completed construction on one of the most advanced automotive wind tunnels in the world. The full scale tunnel is located adjacent to Concord Regional Airport in Concord, North Carolina. The commercial operation was designed for vehicles from race industries: stock car, formula one, indy car, drag racing, as well as production car industries.

I wonder how many teams trust their data with a competitor. ;)
 
FenderBumper said:
Very interesting. This is what wiki says....

In January 2008 Wind Shear, a division of US machine tool builder Haas Automation, completed construction on one of the most advanced automotive wind tunnels in the world. The full scale tunnel is located adjacent to Concord Regional Airport in Concord, North Carolina. The commercial operation was designed for vehicles from race industries: stock car, formula one, indy car, drag racing, as well as production car industries.

I wonder how many teams trust their data with a competitor. ;)
Click to expand...

You think maybe the computer cable mysteriously "Tees off" to a server in a hidden computer room? ;)
 
Well... Stewart did say they found something just before the chase. :rolleyes:

That is pretty neat engineering.
 
Really interesting stuff to think about, Thanks for the Vid.

The windtunnel with rolling road has been in place for several years now, the ability to "Skew" the rolling road is what came about last year.
If you remember late 2009 alot of the teams started useing ALOT of rear steer to get body angle ( I beleive the Penske 77 car was the most obvious one ) NASCAR finaly put a limit to it.

BTW All data is saved on the Teams PCs an the team delets all info left in the facilitys computers, nothings being left behind or stolen Windshear makes Dang sure of that. If they did'nt No one would use their faciltys and I'd hate to know what it cost just to fire the place up in the morning :eek:
 
FlFlash said:
If you remember late 2009 alot of the teams started useing ALOT of rear steer to get body angle ( I beleive the Penske 77 car was the most obvious one ) NASCAR finaly put a limit to it.

Rear steer was started by Roush in 2008, and Carl Edwards went on to win 9 races.

On a side note: Roush also played with the cover on the oil cooler housing, resulting in Carl not getting 10 chase points for his Bristol win before the chase. He did win 3 races in the chase, but wrecked himself (and most of the Roush orginization) out of a championship at Talladega.

And that's why he raced like such a ***** this year.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
FenderBumper said:
Rear steer was started by Roush in 2008, and Carl Edwards went on to win 9 races.

On a side note: Roush also played with the cover on the oil cooler housing, resulting in Carl not getting 10 chase points for his Bristol win before the chase. He did win 3 races in the chase, but wrecked himself (and most of the Roush orginization) out of a championship at Talladega.

And that's why he raced like such a ***** this year.
Click to expand...

2008-2009 some where back along that time frame :rolleyes: I still say the Penske 77 car to it to the Most Obvious degree and was part of the reason put some limits in.

Raceing seasons only been over a week and FB's already gettin kinda Grumpy whats it gonna be like by January :p
Click to expand...
 
KingGlamis said:
I'm sure some of you know about this but for those that don't I thought I would share. This is really cool. From what I read Gene Haas had a hand in creating this.

Click to expand...


They had to build it near a big source of power. LOTS OF POWER.
 
I think there's more motors and electronics in this picture, than an entire Six Flags park...

nascar-test-2.jpg
 
DAMN! That's a lot-o-sh!t.

That dude sitting at the table looks a little vulnerable to me. I don't think I would want to sit that close without at least a helmet, goggles and ear protection - or maybe even a sheet of bullet-proof Lexan between me and that contraption! :eek:
 
robbybee said:
DAMN! That's a lot-o-sh!t.

That dude sitting at the table looks a little vulnerable to me. I don't think I would want to sit that close without at least a helmet, goggles and ear protection - or maybe even a sheet of bullet-proof Lexan between me and that contraption! :eek:
Click to expand...

lol He better hope Steven Wallace isn't in the car sluggin down the last of his 5 hour energy stash.
 
I'm sure someone has thought about this, but the video didn't show anything when the steering is turned. I know that especially at Daytona and Talladega, wheels are turned very little, but nonetheless, they do turn and at very high speeds. I wonder how they could test this in the wind tunnel. I would assume that they could do this by raising one side or the other to simulate varying degrees of banking. And, maybe they do this. Just a thought that I'm sure those engineers have thought out.
 
buckaroo said:
I'm sure someone has thought about this, but the video didn't show anything when the steering is turned. I know that especially at Daytona and Talladega, wheels are turned very little, but nonetheless, they do turn and at very high speeds. I wonder how they could test this in the wind tunnel. I would assume that they could do this by raising one side or the other to simulate varying degrees of banking. And, maybe they do this. Just a thought that I'm sure those engineers have thought out.
Click to expand...

They did say that the table turns and you can remotely control the height of the car. Maybe that's how they simulate turns and banking.
 
FenderBumper said:
They did say that the table turns and you can remotely control the height of the car. Maybe that's how they simulate turns and banking.
Click to expand...
Yes, I saw that, but what I was talking about was the actual turning of the front wheels, ever so slightly.
 
buckaroo said:
Yes, I saw that, but what I was talking about was the actual turning of the front wheels, ever so slightly.
Click to expand...

They can't turn the front wheels. The front wheels would need to be on seperate turn tables to keep the car from bounching and hopping as the belt drives against the sidewall because the car can't turn with the wheels. They would just be dragging the tires sideways across the belt surface, and that won't tell them anything useful.
 
buckaroo said:
Yes, I saw that, but what I was talking about was the actual turning of the front wheels, ever so slightly.
Click to expand...

That could be done on a wind tunnel with the rollers instead of a belt, if the front tire rollers were on turntables of their own. I don't know if anyone has done that yet. But I don't see any way they could turn or simulate turning the front wheels on the rolling belt.
 
This seems to be all about aero, not handling or mechanical grip.
 
robbybee said:
This seems to be all about aero, not handling or mechanical grip.
Click to expand...

True, but the front tires being turned will have a slight change in the aero. I don't know if it's enough for them to worry about, but then again they used to test cars in a wind tunnel with the wheels stationary. Apparently they felt the need to test the cars with the wheels at speed, so there is certainly a difference.
 
KingGlamis said:
True, but the front tires being turned will have a slight change in the aero. I don't know if it's enough for them to worry about, but then again they used to test cars in a wind tunnel with the wheels stationary. Apparently they felt the need to test the cars with the wheels at speed, so there is certainly a difference.
Click to expand...

With the tires spinning, centrifugal force will affect the height of the car. They will also get hot something like they do in a race.
 
robbybee said:
DAMN! That's a lot-o-sh!t.

That dude sitting at the table looks a little vulnerable to me. I don't think I would want to sit that close without at least a helmet, goggles and ear protection - or maybe even a sheet of bullet-proof Lexan between me and that contraption! :eek:
Click to expand...
I count 5 (presumably) 480V transformer boxes just on the one side. Not sure what the blue hoses are, cooling lines for the motors?

The yellow shield appears to hold the drive belt, and that motor has a clear duct going to it.

Not sure what everything else is- seems like it would be simple to me?- but maybe there's more than just wheel scales and a drive motor under there?
 
Magnethead said:
I think there's more motors and electronics in this picture, than an entire Six Flags park...

nascar-test-2.jpg
Click to expand...
Is this real? Where are the safety restraints,and don't technicians usually sit in an enclosed room adjacent to the test rig. Seems there are more monitors on the Pit Row War Wagons than this tech is looking at.
 
MAGICMILER said:
Is this real? Where are the safety restraints,and don't technicians usually sit in an enclosed room adjacent to the test rig. Seems there are more monitors on the Pit Row War Wagons than this tech is looking at.
Click to expand...

I believe that was just testing/setup of the rolling road before it got installed in the wind tunnel. The restraints go to the center of the wheel hubs, but you can't really tell if they are installed in that picture.
 
The rolling road is all about Aero it has several advantages to a stationary floor windtunnel not to mention their now able to rotate the car which simulates slip angles in turns and and shows side forces with body mounting angles. The major advantages isnt that the tires are turning that actually has a very minor effect, It's that the airflow isn't sheared from under the car so you get a much better idea of low/high pressure areas under the car and how much Real downforce your creating.

That last pic was taken during construction/set up that NOT how it's currently configured.
 
KingGlamis said:
I believe that was just testing/setup of the rolling road before it got installed in the wind tunnel. The restraints go to the center of the wheel hubs, but you can't really tell if they are installed in that picture.
Click to expand...

Yep it's a COOL pic though gives you an idea of what your looking at!
 
MOEJOE said:
It takes like 4 jiggawatts just to run the ting.
Click to expand...

The flux capacitor alone cost millions.

These guys built the worlds biggest belt sander, turned it upside down and put a fan in front of it. Now they charge millions for each ride.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom