Aim93: Designing the Fastest Bicycle in the World, Enabled by Autodesk Generative Design and CFD

The presentation will open with veteran cycle designer Mike Burrows, who will introduce the design strategy behind his initial frame design for the vehicle. He will describe the proof-of-principle model created to road test rolling resistance, wheel size and tyre selection. From that data, he designed and fabricated a carbon frame through a craft, analogue process, building on his considerable experience but without the use of any digital design aids. The courses were modelled mathematically in respect to the drag induced by the terrain. By the end of 2017 an initial prototype vehicle was ready for track testing and evaluation. This prototype will be used for UK speed and hour records in early 2018. Following Mike's introduction, Glen Thompson of London South Bank University will describe the aerodynamic considerations. Concurrently to the frame design, he was developing the external faring for the vehicle around datum points from Mike?s design. Approximately 30 iterations of form were generated over a period of 2 years, slowed by the requirement to solve models locally. The drag coefficients of early designs were benchmarked against models of the existing world record holder, Varna, and subsequently refined to absolute values with a goal to minimise the size of the transition zone to reduce drag. The second half of the presentation will be made by Barney Townsend of London South Bank University, and will focus on Autodesk's contribution to the project: the use of generative design and cloud computing to develop the next generation HPV design for the world speed record. Autodesk CFD will be used to validate existing results, and employ cloud computing to massively accelerate design improvements on the faring. This second-generation, hopefully world-record-breaking, vehicle will be manufactured in June with help from the Autodesk Advanced Manufacturing facility. At time of writing this abstract, the existing frame has been 3d scanned and imported to Fusion ready for subsequent rebuilding of the model for use with Generative Design. The presentation will conclude with the latest road test results and designs, and future plans for the record attempt at Battle Mountain, Nevada in September 2018. It will also summarise plans for a future spinout of the project as an HPV design project for STEM education in schools.