Waterproof: fluid simulations propel Speedo onto winner's platform.(USER FOCUS: SIMULATION)

Ansys had a strong presence at the Beijing Olympics in the swimming competition. That's because the majority of medals won and world records broken in this sport during the games were achieved by competitors wearing swimsuits designed in part with the company's Ansys simulation software.

Speedo's revolutionary LZR Racer suit features panels that reduce drag and are positioned precisely based on fluid-flow analysis results simulated with technology from Ansys. The software was used to guide, test, and refine the final design of the suit.

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Athletes wearing the Speedo LZR Racer suit set 23 out of 25 world records and won 47 gold medals-89 percent of all swimming medals. Even prior to the Olympic swim competition, 52 world records were set in 2008, and 48 of those were accomplished by swimmers wearing the Speedo suits. In fact, within just a week of the suit's launch in February of this year, athletes wearing it had broken three world records.

"We are proud to be a strategic technology behind the product that helped elite swimmers shave seconds off their competitive times," says Chris Reid, vice president of marketing at Ansys. "The development team was able to run more what-if analyses prior to actual physical prototypes. Beyond these experimental benefits, our software provided researchers with a better understanding of drag forces, thus revealing potential ways to reduce theme'

A Speedo computational fluid dynamics expert, the late Barry Bixler utilized Ansys software to simulate the flow of water around a virtual swimmer's body. Researchers used the simulation results to identify areas of passive drag-the friction produced by a swimmer's body while it is in a streamlined position, which the swimmer typically assumes after the initial dive and following each lap's turn off the pool wall. This glide position accounts for about 30 percent of the race, so lessening drag in this position is critically important in a competitive race situation.

The engineering simulation results pinpointed areas of higher resistance on the athletes' bodies-for instance, across the chest. This work guided the ultimate position of the Speedo LZR Racer suit panels, deliberately shaped sections of low-friction material that reduce skin-friction drag by a total ...