High Performance Computing and the BB2

Our computing sponsor (The Ohio Supercomputer Center), through whom we do all of our aerodynamic simulations, has posted some videos that were shot by them with our team out on the salt flats this summer. This is some of the same footage that was used by WOSU to produce an imix segment for the Big Ten Network. This time, the videos are a bit more aimed towards a super-computing audience (you can take that both ways). Some of the BB2 Videos:

• Our Advisor, Giorgio Rizzoni: Applying the power of supercomputing to the challenges of industry
• Kevin Ponziani: Demonstrating the BB2 machine
• Kim Stevens: Achieving stability and low resistance through computational fluid dynamics
  
• Our Ford Partners: Fostering industrial partnerships for cutting-edge fuel cell research (Featuring the Project Leader for the Ford Hydrogen 999)
  

(See more videos at the OSC Video site)

See What Roger Sees

Alright, we're finally all packed up from the week, and I've had some time to get all of the things that we've collected through the week together. I know the posts dropped out there for a few days, but we were working diligently to fix and work through some challenges that we saw come up with the car. Two nights ago, we worked until about sunrise in a hangar out at the Wendover airport, which was the training site of the WW2 air force units that carried out the operations of dropping the atomic bombs over Japan. It was a very historic and inspirational feeling place to work, and we were back on the salt flats the very next morning (which would have been yesterday).

Anyways, today we captured some cockpit footage of our 201mph run (the last run we made this week). If you see it, you might get an understanding of how calm of a person Roger is. Going 201mph, he is able to calmly operate everything without even looking nervous. How he does it, I do not know. Oh, and he shifted during the run, without us knowing that he did it until after the run. Made us sort of nervous, but it seemed to work pretty well. Enjoy the video, it is one of my favorite cockpit videos that I've been able to capture.

201.636 mph !!!

We hit our run goal, and join Ford in the ranks of fuel cell cars over 200 mph!

149 Mph!!!

We just made our first run! The car worked great, parachutes deployed, and everyone was very happy with the performance of the car. We think a celebration is in order...

Some Visuals...

Alright, it is far easier to type here back at the hotel than on the salt, and I've finally been able to get some photos up from our tech inspection (see below). We spent the day chasing a few small problems that might have prevented us from getting a good, consistent start at the line, and we think we've gotten those problems worked out. We will go through a mock start before towing the car over to the start line (where our push truck is reserving our spot). This will help us to make sure that we've got our run strategy down, and that the car will run reliably. So, the plan is to stick with our spot in line and get a run in tomorrow. It has taken a bit longer to get everything set up than we might have wanted, be we definitely have a car that will be more prepared to run down the track, and do so safely and to the satisfaction of Roger (our driver).

Solutions here and there

Well the car is set up mechanically, and we went to spin up the wheels and found some problems with the control system, and were able to find solutions that would allow us to run. We are putting in the changes that we made and have a placeholder in the waiting line to run. By the looks of the size of the line, and how close the the sun is to the horizon, it is most likely that we will most likely be running tomorrow morning.

Almost Ready...

I know there haven't been many updates lately, but we have been working hard to get the car to the start line. We were able to pass tech inspection yesterday with only a small modification to the parachute release system, which is working great now. We are almost ready to put the car at the start line after we make some final checks, so we are anticipating running in the early afternoon today.

Getting Ready

We spent all of Friday prepping the car to go through tech inspection, as well as prepare it to be race-ready. Everyone spent the time to get their finishing touches on the car, and we even had a friendly visit from the officials to do a quick, informal inspection of the car to see if there were any problems they might see before we take it up for the real tech inspection, and they said everything was looking good. We are shooting to go through technical inspection early on Saturday morning. Well it's time to head to the salt this morning, so I'm heading out of here, hopefully good news to come from tech inspection today...

Finally on the salt

We made it out to the salt today, working with Ford to get the pit area set up, as well as lend a hand to several racers out here with getting their pit areas set up. We're all pretty anxious about the car getting here soon, since there are some finishing touches that we'd all like to get on. The morning started out with what looked like a lot of water as we were driving out to the salt (see the photos), but quickly ended, and has dried up very well, so we should be set to have a good course!

Greetings from Wendover, Utah

Well, I know we've been a couple of days since the last post, but let me assure you that it is from working feverishly to get the car shipped out for Speedweek. We've gotten everything reinstalled in the car, rechecked all of our connections, nuts, bolts, etc., and packed everything up. The Buckeye Bullet 2 officially shipped out this morning on a motor transport carrier, along with a few of the team members (Andy, Matt and Dave to be precise) driving with a trailer of extra parts, tools, and everything else but the kitchen sink to have on the salt flats with us. The rest of the team, including myself, flew out this morning and are currently in the lovely town of Wendover, Utah, which is roughly 10 minutes away from the flats. We'll be taking care of some logistics here until the car arrives, when we'll get everything ready to go through tech inspection, where the car will be checked by race officials for all of the necessary safety precautions.

Also, now that we are forced to leave the salt flats at sundown and stop working with the car, I'll actually be able to update more frequently, and let everyone know what's happening day to day. Look forward for more to come!