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Publication
The variations on the aerodynamics of a world-ranked wheelchair sprinter in the key moments of the stroke cycle: A numerical simulation analysis
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Abstract(s)
Biomechanics plays an important role helping Paralympic sprinters to excel, having the aerodynamic drag a significant impact on the athlete’s performance. The aim of this study was to assess the aerodynamics in different key-moments of the stroke cycle by Computa tional Fluid Dynamics. A world-ranked wheelchair sprinter was scanned on the racing wheelchair wearing his competition gear and helmet. The sprinter was scanned in three different positions: (i) catch (hands in the 12h position on the hand-rim); (ii) the release (hands
in the 18h position on the hand-rim) and; (iii) recovery phase (hands do not touch the hand rim and are hyperextended backwards). The simulations were performed at 2.0, 3.5, 5.0
and 6.5 m/s. The mean viscous and pressure drag components, total drag force and effec tive area were retrieved after running the numerical simulations. The viscous drag ranged from 3.35 N to 2.94 N, pressure drag from 0.38 N to 5.51 N, total drag force from 0.72 N to 8.45 N and effective area from 0.24 to 0.41 m2. The results pointed out that the sprinter was submitted to less drag in the recovery phase, and higher drag in the catch. These findings suggest the importance of keeping an adequate body alignment to avoid an increase in the drag force.
Description
Funding: This project was supported by the National Funds through FCT - Portuguese
Foundation for Science and Technology (UID/DTP/ 04045/2013) - and the European Fund for regional
development (FEDER) allocated by European Union through the COMPETE 2020 Programme (POCI01-0145-FEDER-006969).
Keywords
Drag Wheelchairs Aerodynamics Running Stroke Reynolds number Hands Sports
Pedagogical Context
Citation
Forte P, Marinho DA, Morais JE, Morouço PG, Barbosa TM (2018) The variations on the aerodynamics of a world-ranked wheelchair sprinter in the key-moments of the stroke cycle: A numerical simulation analysis. PLoS ONE 13(2): e0193658. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal. pone.0193658
Publisher
Public Library of Science