A Study on Slot Design of Motorcycle Windshield to Improve Aerodynamics Features

Abstract

In motorcycle competitions, aerodynamics plays a fundamental role. In order to improve the
performance of racing motorbikes, various windshield designs have been studied experimentally.
The objective of this study was to minimize the magnitude of skin-friction on a Ducati 1198SP
track-motorcycle’s windshield via the integration of slots. An alpha prototype in the motorcycle
windshield was designed for the Ducati 1198SP track-motorcycle, and validation was performed
on the performance of the newly designed slot variation in the motorcycle windshield in term of
aerodynamic features. The newly concept included a double layered windshield construction with
the integration of slots, which was tested in a wind tunnel to compare its aerodynamics properties
with a stock windshield design of the Ducati 1198SP track-motorcycle. It was proven via the
experiment that the Concept I has successfully improved the aerodynamic performance when the
tilted angle of the slotted design was at 3.9472°. The particular windshield had the lowest
coefficient of drag, lift and the drag and lift force when it travels at 20 m/s. For future studies,
more variations of the slot and double layer designs could be further tested.