Speedo uses ANSYS simulation to develop racing swimwear

Speedo worked with ANSYS — a software company that has helped airliners fly more efficiently and Formula One cars produce more down force — to develop a nylon swimsuit, cap and goggle system that together make up the new Fastskin³ Racing System.

In relation to the projects that ANSYS typically works on, Stephen Silvester, a consultant engineer for ANSYS, told The Engineer: ‘The engineering problem is essentially the same. You have a shape moving through a fluid and we want to make it go through there faster. Outside the engineering community it can be a bit of a leap of the imagination to see that the same technology can work here but the physics and the problems are the same.’

The Fastskin³ Racing System is the successor to Speedo’s LZR Racer suit that forced Fédération Internationale de Natation (FINA), the international swimming body, to introduce new regulations following the success it had in the 2008 Beijing Olympics.