Cyclist Aerodynamics: A Comparison Between Wind Tunnel Tests and CFD Simulations for Helmet Design

During the last decades, a particular attention has been paid to the aerodynamic optimization of professional bike riders and their equipment, with a large use of experimental investigation as well as numerical simulations. Extensive studies have been carried out in wind tunnels all over the world by professional cycling teams to study the best set-up for time trial competitions. The standard approach is to compare different parts of the equipment or different positions and find out the optimized configuration by a trial and error procedure. This paper presents an attempt of helmet design based on CFD calculations and experimental validation of numerical results with a new experimental set-up able to measure the surface pressure on a real helmet.