Doug Bohl (MS '96, PhD '02, Mech Egr), on left in photo, an assistant professor at Clarkson University in Potsdam, New York, is one of two mechanical engineers from Clarkson working to design a faster, more aerodynamic sled for the U.S. luge team in time for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. "The story made it all the way to Sports Illustrated and USA Today," says Bohl.
He is working with Professor Brian Helenbrook on the project. "We'll build a computer model of a sled with a slider on it, compute the drag, examine the flow going past, and finally put an actual sled in Clarkson's wind tunnel to make drag measurements," says Bohl. Eventually, a sled will be built based on the Clarkson team's research and taken to the low-speed (sub-sonic) wind tunnel at the San Diego Air and Space Technology Center where USA luge sleds are tested.
