Any engineers out there? I am a mechanical engineering student doing a project using MATLAB to optimize anything I want. I was thinking of trying to optimize something related to surfing. Does anyone have any ideas that I could try? My initial thought was optimizing fins but realized there is not a lot of research dealing with fins. I am open to any ideas, even ones that are not surfing related.
fins would probably be a tricky fluid mechanics problem. Maybe something having to do with pfd's for the big wave surfers? maximum float with a minimized area for less restriction... then again... if you're wearing a jacket... you're probably not paddling... i duno just a thought
^ exactly what I was thinking, or maybe different board materials or even foam volume in relation to a surfers weight.
This might be unoriginal, and maybe you already know about this, but how about finding a copy of The Naval Architecture of Planing Hulls, by Lindsay Lord, 1946. I do a lot of work for the New York Yacht Club and their library doesn't have it, which makes me think that it could be a hard book to find. But the summaries I've read of it sound cool. Maybe there's room for new ideas about surfboards--beyond what Bob Simmons found.
If you want to keep it simple, how about optimizing the rocker for a given takeoff angle and maximizing speed. Less rocker is higher speed but lower takeoff angle. Something like that?
Very interesting, I didn't think about doing outlines in general. In case you're interested in reading the book I found a pdf here. http://e-j-m.com/lord-book.html Artificial reef is the first thing to come to mind when I thought about engineering, but that is too large of a engineering project for me to take on. and @lonesome, that is also a good idea for the pfd, but that seems like a more fitting project using CAD rather than matlab.
hey man matlab would be a good way to analyze surfing. I think I would make an ideal (optimized...) volume calculator. It could simultaneously solve for the moment that the board goes from being displacement to planing and you would input mass and wave face angle and stuff like that and have it spit out some board volumes. I bet if you were a real dougie houser you could make it calculate glass thickness due to the bottom pressures. Boo yah. I have a couple matlab books on my shelf, PM me if you need any help with your project.
How about doing some research on these http://www.thesurfboardwarehouse.com/p-1269-futures-box-fillers-br-available-in-12in-34in.aspx You could compare the drag with and without. I'd be interested to see if there is a substantial difference
Wouldnt it be more cost effective to just spend the $12 and compare the drag with and without them yourself to see if there is a substantial difference? Modelling usually isnt the solution to a ten dollar question.
Check out this video on fins. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SH2ylhHktcg Pretty interesting stuff. Thank you to the guy that put the LAA PDF up! I've been interested in seeing this for a while.
Maybe try to optimize the geometry of the tail of a board for varying speeds. Compare this to the effect that fins play on speeds. You could also do a variable sensitivity analysis between the two. What changes have the most benefit over the ranges of water velocities that the board sees. I've always wondered what the benefits were of having a pointed nose on a board... seems like a waste to me other than cosmetics. Any truth to that? Board thickness vs. width... speed, buoyancy? channels in boards
A high quality, surfboard-specific, uv catalyst for epoxy, and an epoxy gloss resin are sort of the holy grail right now for me. Anything you can do to get more research in that direction?
