The BMW Sauber F1 Team, chose to invest in a custom-built supercomputer, the Albert2, rather than in a second wind tunnel. Powered by 512 Intel Xeon 5160 dual-core processors, Albert2 can make 12.28812 calculations/sec.

Virtual Wind tunnels is a tremendous use of scientific computing in the automotive industry. The BMW team can run models with more than 1 billion cells. Thanks to improved chassis construction and improved aerodynamics achieved with the help of software, the BMW Sauber F1 Team improved its point total in the Constructors’ Championship from 34 points in 2006 (for a fifth place finish) to 101 points in 2007 (finishing second to Ferrari).

Apart from just getting the results of a car in a wind tunnel, virtual wind tunnels also help to analyze those results. eg. it’s possible to simulate two or more cars in a racing scenario concurrently and see the effects of ‘dirty’ air – airflow hitting one car and then impacting following cars.

Rather than running huge simulations faster, F1 teams are more likely to perform more medium-sized solution in the same time, allowing them to better scrutinise key components. Typical areas where the mesh is most dense, giving more accurate results, include the wheels and front/rear wings where the car’s geometry is the most complex and the flow physics is the most complicated.

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