Exa Corporation Helps Bo-Dyn Bobsled Team to Winter Olympics

With the use of Exa Corporation’s aerodynamic simulations, the Bo-Dyn Bobsled Project has created a winning sled that will once again represent the USA at the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.

Exa, a company that specializes in fluid simulation solutions for product engineering, started working with Bo-Dyn in 2010. Their partnership resulted a newly redesigned bobsled chassis. With their optimized aerodynamic design, the USA team achieved an Olympic victory in 2010. It is with this same chassis design the team hopes to bring home more medals at Sochi.

A conceptual rendering of the Bo-Dyn four-Man USA Bobsled team, optimized in Exa’s PowerFLOW software.

Bob Cuneo, chief engineer for Bo-Dyn, remarked, “The sled we brought to Vancouver [in 2010] excelled aerodynamically thanks to our partnership with Exa Corporation. As we were optimized aerodynamically for the straightaways we focused our resources on improved handling in the curves with steering and runner changes for this season. We have every confidence that this new sled, the Night Trian2, has the ability to medal again.”

According to Bo-Dyn, this year’s four-man team has brought home gold medals in three 2013-2104 FIBT World Cup races in Calgary, Canada, Park City, UT, and Lake Placid, NY, as they prepare for the February games in Russia.

For more information, visit Exa Corp. and read “Finding Wiggle Room in the Bo-Dyn Bobsled for Team USA” by Desktop Engineering’s Senior Editor, Kenneth Wong.