Race Talk with MV Agusta - How to Improve Moto GP Aerodynamics

For more videos on motorbike aerodynamics:

MV Agusta is one of the teams competing in the MOTO GP - moto2 race class. In this interview, technical director Brian Gillen reveals how they blend physical & virtual wind tunnel testing to improve the aerodynamics of their moto2 race bike.

Wind tunnel testing process
Wind tunnel testing is great: you get a lot of empirical data. But there are a number of steps involved before you get there:
- Test definition: set up the goals & methods of the test plan, which sensors to use, which loads to expect, ...
- CAD design: design the parts for the prototype in a 3D CAD package
- Component prototyping: manufacture the components using 3D printing, carbon fiber, CNC machining, ...
- Mounting on a test bike: mount all the components on a frame (which can be the frame of an existing bike)
- Transportation: move all the required people, equipment and the prototype to the wind tunnel.
- Wind tunnel test: execute the wind tunnel test, monitor the forces, log the data, apply different visualization techniques, set different angles of attack, test at multiple speeds, apply tufts, ...
- Post-processing: process the data into a comprehensive report and draw conclusions

Wind tunnel testing advantages and disadvantages
+ Accurate force & moment data
+ Live feedback
- Indirect visualization
- Challenging to find causality

Wind tunnel simulations
- Traditional CFD programs: the time required to prepare a CAD model (close all gaps & holes) and manually set up a simulation is too long compared to the rapid steps of evolution of the bike in the development process. By the time simulation results were in, they were already 3 steps past with the real prototype.
- AirShaper: take a non-closed model and very quickly put it through the CFD algorithms to get back data. This allowed for very fast iterations to understand where they were in terms of fluid dynamics around the bike.

Data validation
For them, as engineers, data means nothing if it is not validated.
They were able to validate the AirShaper data versus data from the wind tunnel test and found an almost complete convergence in terms of forces & moments on the vehicle.

Virtual iterations
That allowed them to build a virtual avatar around the bike as a mirror image of the physical world. From there on, they could dive into the virtual world for an iterative process before going back to the real world, where testing costs a lot of money. Designing, constructing, testing & scrapping prototypes when they do not work is very expensive.

Track testing
On the track, the drivers can test the real performance of the bike and give qualitative & quantitative feedback to the development team (vibrations at certain speeds, wind buffeting affecting visibility, aerodynamic stability, ...).
Here too, like in the wind tunnel, you need to be able to correlate numbers to sensation. For this to be possible, the rider has to be very lucid & clear in his description of what he's experiencing on the track (what & where is he experiencing an issue) so that this can be matched to data to find a mathematical reason.

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The AirShaper videos cover the basics of aerodynamics (aerodynamic drag, drag & lift coefficients, boundary layer theory, flow separation, reynolds number...), simulation aspects (computational fluid dynamics, CFD meshing, ...) and aerodynamic testing (wind tunnel testing, flow visualization, ...).
We then use those basics to explain the aerodynamics of (race) cars (aerodynamic efficiency of electric vehicles, aerodynamic drag, downforce, aero maps, formula one aerodynamics, ...), drones and airplanes (propellers, airfoils, electric aviation, eVTOLS, ...), motorcycles (wind buffeting, motogp aerodynamics, ...) and more!

[bunyaminaktas]

A treasure in youtube, It is short but about basics.

[nicolasberberoffnaval]

Really enjoyed the contents! How they deal with turbulence to improve overall performance is very interesting. Thanks for these videos!

[freelancerider]

I ride a super sport bike and have been suffering from the poor aerodynamics these machines are built with-
I have found that wind buffeting at speeds of 150mph is so intense that it actually distorts the helmet visor and severely effects the riders vision. I have tried many different helmets and for myself the agv pista is vastly better then other helmets such as shoei x14 and arai models.
I am desperate to solve the issue of turbulence behind the helmet, and theorize the use of "winglets" are the solution! The low speed air mixing in the separation bubble directly behind the rider can be redirected by the use of the boxed style winglets such as those used on the first gen go bikes in 2019- where they basically used the contour of the bikes original fairing and boxing a air foil shape with in it- the fluid simulation shows the air stream becomes helixicle as it passes through and over the foil causing it to stream along the legnth of the bike now mixing into the high speed air stream under and behind the pillion-
If you can prove this with your resources or disprove it? Would further my efforts to find a solution to buffeting! Thanks

[dgcabrall]

could you do a video about ryno fender?