Loading...
Novel reactive flex configuration in kiwi wing foil surfboard
Fat Cheung, Adrien M Bari, Klaudio
Fat Cheung, Adrien M
Bari, Klaudio
Authors
Editors
Other contributors
Affiliation
Epub Date
Issue Date
2021-12-26
Submitted date
Alternative
Abstract
The creation of an ideal surfboard is art. The design and construction depend on the individual surfer’s skill level and type of the required performance. In this research, four fuselage concepts were carefully explored to meet the following unique needs: lightweight, strong, and a fast-manufacturing process. The fuselages were manufactured by compression moulding using skin and core materials. The skin material was selected to be unidirectional (UD) carbon fibre, discontinuous carbon fibre (SMC) and Filava quadriaxial fibre impregnated with epoxy, while the core material was selected to be lightweight PVC foam. To assess the mechanical performance, three-point bending has been performed according to BS-ISO 14125 and validated using Finite Element Analysis (FEA) using Ansys software. As expected, the flexural test revealed that the UD carbon fibre fuselage was the strongest and SMC was the weakest, while large deflection was seen in Filava fibre fuselages before failure, showing great reactive flex that promotes projection during surfing. The experimental results show good agreement with FEA simulation, and the locations of the physical failure in the fuselage matches the location of maximum flexural stress obtained from FEA simulation. Although all fuselages were found to carry a surfer weight of 150 kg, including a factor of safety 3, except the SMC fuselage, due to shrinkage. The Filava fibre fuselages were seen to have a large deflection before failure, showing great flexibility to handle high ocean waves. This promotes the potential use of reactive flex in high performance sports equipment, such as surfing boards. A large shrinkage must be taken under consideration during compression moulding that depends on fibre orientation, resin nature, and part geometry.
Citation
Fat Cheung, A.M. and Bari, K. (2021) Novel Reactive Flex Configuration in Kiwi Wing Foil Surfboard. Journal of Composites Science. 2022; 6(1):6. https://doi.org/10.3390/jcs6010006
Publisher
Journal
Research Unit
PubMed ID
PubMed Central ID
Embedded videos
Additional Links
Type
Journal article
Language
en
Description
© 2021 The Authors. Published by MDPI. This is an open access article available under a Creative Commons licence.
The published version can be accessed at the following link on the publisher’s website: https://doi.org/10.3390/jcs6010006
Series/Report no.
ISSN
2504-477X
EISSN
2504-477X