SASL to supply wind tunnel to new Silverstone Engineering Hub
Technology consortium Sports Aero Solutions Limited (SASL) has been chosen to supply the new state-of-the-art wind tunnel to Silverstone’s new Sports Engineering Hub in Northamptonshire.
The company previously delivered what is said to be the UK’s first dedicated cycling wind tunnel installed at the Boardman Performance Centre, Evesham. At Silverstone, SASL will install an adaptable facility, which will be used for R&D for a range of sports. With a fan measuring 2.5 meters in diameter, and speeds of approximately 60mph, the wind tunnel will enable analysis of sports including cycling, running, skiing and ski-jumping.
Based on open source programming, the software within the tunnel enables sportspeople to access data however they want, from coefficient of drag figures to pressure distribution, enabling R&D developers to understand the changes required to drive performance improvement.
The SASL consortium delivering the tunnel is comprised of high-performance engineering solutions provider KWSP, aerodynamic and computational fluid dynamic (CFD) experts TotalSim and Olympic gold medal cyclist Chris Boardman.
KWSP MD Kieron Salter said: “This project is typical of the work we do at KWSP – first-of-kind engineering challenges transferring technology from one sector to another. Our specialist team of engineers are taking the techniques used by motorsport industries to design an adaptable and flexible wind tunnel, capable of achieving a high quality of airflow and repeatability to suit a range of sports analytics programmes.”
The wind tunnel will become a major attraction inside the Silverstone Sports Engineering Hub when it opens in early 2019. The goal of the Hub is to provide opportunities for companies in the area to apply their motorsport and/or advanced engineering capabilities to the sports science sector. The hub will also provide space for companies to have a base at Silverstone, with a range of sports equipment. There are more details in our story from last month.
