Abstract

The development of current golf club designs has followed an evolutionary process starting with the original wooden heads of a hundred years ago, to the thin-walled, hollow body titanium heads of today. Current designs utilize what has become known as the trampoline effect to increase the efficiency of the ball-club impact, which has a number of limiting factors that restrict clubhead performance. These limitations provided the motivation for this research to explore new mechanisms by which the efficiency of the ball club impact could be increased. In particular this research focuses on the development of compliant mechanisms to increase club performance. The results of this research, from concept development to initial prototype plans, are included in this study. A discussion of past and current research in the area of golf club design is presented. A new list of performance metrics for golf clubs and a number of new golf club concepts is also presented. This is followed by a static and dynamic analysis of the most promising golf club configuration. The study is concluded with a concept validation analysis and a presentation of possible prototype configurations for a new golf club design.

Degree

MS

College and Department

Ira A. Fulton College of Engineering and Technology; Mechanical Engineering

Rights

http://lib.byu.edu/about/copyright/

Date Submitted

2006-03-23

Document Type

Thesis

Handle

http://hdl.lib.byu.edu/1877/etd1258

Keywords

golf club design, trampoline effect, impact, compliant mechanisms, COR, coefficient of restitution

Language

English

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