Car wins Dutch sustainability race against the wind / Sponsored by LM

The winning team from DTU (Technical University of Denmark)
Every year in August, international teams compete in Racing Aeolus Den Helder; one of the largest sustainability races in the world.  For the team of students from the Technical University of Denmark DTU Wind Energy, the event was the culmination of several months of preparations, working with aerodynamics and fiber composites manufacturing to build what would turn out to be the winning car.

Strategic student outreach
The wind car’s aerodynamic and slender design was based on LM Wind Power sponsored material, underlining the close relationship to the Danish wind energy research community and student base. LM also sponsored a mold to build a downsized version of the car which the students will now use to focus more on infusion and structural aspects.

“DTU Wind Energy students are highly attractive as potential future employees for LM and we are actively trying to make them aware of our existence and capabilities,” said Senior Engineer and PhD in Composites Mechanics, Allan Roulund Gersborg, who facilitated the sponsorship of the race car.

Test runs in Denmark earlier this year revealed that with a head wind of 20 km/h the student car was able to achieve an amazing car speed of 12 km/h against the wind. This corresponds to an efficiency of approximately 75% of the theoretical maximum. The car didn’t make that it to quite that yield in The Netherlands, but it was enough to beat local competition as well as the teams from Germany, Canada and Turkey.

Measuring racing time
To calculate the ratio, the speed of the vehicle (Vcar) and the average wind speed and direction during the race over 500 meters dyke, is being measured (Vws). The ratio of Vcar / Vws shows how efficient the vehicle races against the wind.

For more images from the race: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.767855843336685.1073741851.248128735309401&type=3

18 seconds video showing the car in action (from 2012) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIE7No5pX9U

 

This story is from our intanet and made by Lene Mi Ran Kristensen