Can fluid mechanics research help Sweden win more medals in the Winter Olympics?

Malte Sloma's master thesis - supervised by FLOW's T. Mukha, R. Örlü and P. Schlatter - explores how CFD can help the national luge team to become faster on the track. In his work, Malte developed the methodology to explore how different positioning of the athlete's body on the sled affects the drag. To make personalized recommendations possible, 3D scanning was used to digitize the body of a real athlete together with the sled. The thus obtained geometry is then used in CFD simulations. The work was performed in collaboration with the national team, and Svante Kohala (currently competing in Beijing!) was the subject of the scanning. The team is very excited at the prospect of further collaboration with FLOW and hopes that simulation techniques will give them an edge at the upcoming Olympics in 2026.

Read more here:
www.kth.se/aktuellt/nyheter/forskare-okar-farten-i-os-1.1138786