Michael Phelps, Sports Illustrated, & NASA Technology: The Geek & The Gold

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August 19, 8:11 PM

by Patricia Phillips, Space News Examiner

 

 

The Geek & The Gold: NASA engineer Wilkinson & Phelps

Among the Olympic gold medalists wearing the NASA-assisted Speedo LZR Racer are  Phelps -- who has now won more Olympic gold medals than any athlete in the modern era -- and Natalie Coughlin. She's made history too--Coughlin is the  first  American female athlete in modern Olympic history to win six medals in one Olympics and the first woman ever to win a 100 m backstroke gold in two consecutive Olympics.

Both Phelps and Coughlin had a hand in developing the skintight body suit. So did aerospace engineer Steve Wilkinson from NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va. He's tested dozens of swimsuit fabrics in NASA Langley's 7- by 11-Inch Low Speed Wind Tunnel. Wilkinson calls the testing and research "fundamental physics."

But how did NASA get involved in what is probably the most talked-about swimsuit since the bikini? Warnaco Inc., the U.S. licensee of the Speedo swimwear brand, approached NASA Langley to test fabric samples, since NASA Langley has researched drag reduction for aircraft and even boats for decades.

"We evaluated the surface roughness effects of nearly 60 fabrics or patterns in one of our small low speed wind tunnels," said Wilkinson. "We were assessing which fabrics and weaves had the lowest drag. The tests have generally shown the smoother the fabric, the lower the drag."

Just like reducing drag helps planes fly more efficiently, reducing drag helps swimmers go faster. Studies indicate viscous drag or skin friction is almost one-third of the total restraining force on a swimmer. Wind tunnel tests measure the drag on the surface of the fabrics.

"The fabric comes in the form of fabric tubes, a small diameter fabric tube," Wilkinson added. "We pull that over our smooth flat model, which is an aluminum plate underneath. We prepare the edges so they're straight and square with no protruding corners or edges to interfere with the drag on the surface."

The plate goes into the small wind tunnel test section. With a flip of a switch, air flows over it. Wilkinson runs the tunnel through a number of wind speeds and, with the help of sensors, measures drag on the surface. He records the data and then sends it on to Speedo researchers.

Speedo's research and development team, Aqualab, takes the results and uses them to help create advanced "space-age" swimsuit designs.

Wilkinson says he never expected that he would test swimsuit fabric when he started at NASA 30 years ago. He adds he gets a lot of chuckles from his colleagues. As he's watching the Olympics, knowing that he played a small part in swimming history, Wilkinson may be having the last laugh.

The fabric that made it through Wilkinson's wind tunnel analysis has already caused a big splash since the LZR Racer swimsuit was introduced in February. Even before the Olympics swimmers wearing the skin-tight body suit set 48 world records.

Maybe it's not far off the mark to call the Phelps-Coughlin phenomena "geek gold." What's ahead for suit technology?Stay tuned--the next summer Olympics may bring what's being called a "spacesuit suit" to even greater heights--if NASA has anything to do with it.

 And a shout-out to Celebrity Examiner Liz Barrett, who first sleuthed out Phelps' switch to Tony's Frosted Flakes team.

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