Ski Builders Forum

After building skis all summer, I decided I wanted to continue the fun back at school. I've spoken with a professor about it and he has agreed to sponsor me for an independent study type research project. He has done work with snowboard research in the past and was very interested to hear of my plans. I submitted an initial research proposal and we are getting ready to formally choose a topic for exploration over the coming semester. Here are the ideas we have thrown around:

a. The affect of alterations in core thickness/material on longitudinal stiffness
b. The affect of alterations in composite thickness/material on longitudinal stiffness
c. The affect of alterations in core thickness/material on torsional stiffness
d. The affect of alterations in composite thickness/material on torsional stiffness
e. The affect of binding attachment method/location on ski performance
f. An analysis of recent design trends culminating in a forecast for future ski design
g. static vs. dynamic / (lab vs. field testing)
h. ProEngineer modeling for advanced computer modeling
j. Vibration testing
k. Fatigue testing

These came out of an initial brainstorm session and are just the first few things we considered. Given that I'll report the results of the project at the end of the semester and this is obviously a very knowledgeable community, I would like all of your input on the research topics I've laid out. I'd also be interested to hear about any additional topics you might suggest. I've also started a preliminary literary review to see what type of scholarly research is currently occurring and I'd love to hear about any papers or articles you've read that might be of interest.

THANKS FOR YOUR HELP!!

I'd like to find more info on the orientation of materials. The bias of the composites, grain of the wood, layup schedule. If the materials are all the same thickness and the only change is orientation it would allow one press to make up different performing skis.

thats sounds good. Just getting a standard of testing is alot of work - you might want to mix bench results with skier opinions too in order to verify your outcomes and show real world results

Thanks for the input guys!

Could anyone tell me who (user name) wrote this paper in the articles section or perhaps how to get in contact with this man?

RoboGeek, it sounds like you are speaking from experience, have you done any quantitative research before?

i think you should hook up with the user endre ... the guy who worked out those incredible great pdfs with the flex comparison of almost all skis on the market!