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MAPLESOFT
MapleSim Helps Improve Your Golf Game
Cleveland Golf, an internationally recognized maker of golf clubs with a strong tradition of innovation, wanted to explore ways to increase the performance of their drivers. Their engineers turned to MapleSim, a physical modeling and simulation tool from Maplesoft, to help them in this project.
In particular, they wanted to investigate the effect of different shafts on the performance of the driver. The flexibility of the shaft, and how the bending and torsion varies down the length of the shaft, plays a vital role in determining how far the golf ball will travel. With the help of Dr. John McPhee, NSERC Industrial Research Chair and professor of Systems Design Engineering at the University of Waterloo, they used MapleSim to create a model of a driver. The shaft itself was modeled using MapleSim’s built-in flexible beam component. The driver head model was carefully designed to include the exact characteristics of the Cleveland Golf driver head, including factors such as its mass and moments of inertia. To simulate a variety of swings from different players, experimental measurements were taken from varsity players on the university golf team. This information was input into the model as the 6 degree-of-freedom motion of the grip, which in turn determined the movement of the shaft. Different versions of this base model were created by modifying model parameters to match the properties of the different club designs.
When the models were validated against the experimental data, good to very good agreement was found between the simulation and the experimental data for club head speed and the dynamic loft and droop at the instant of contact with the ball. In addition, the MapleSim models were found to run significantly faster than similar models based on finite-element techniques.
“The MapleSim models we're running allow us to predict head delivery conditions with more variables, higher precision, and faster run times”, said John Rae, Research Manager, R&D, of Cleveland Golf. “Using MapleSim's simulation tools we can generate custom swing calculations based on every equipment variable, leaving nothing to speculation.”
With efficient, validated dynamic models of a golf driver, Cleveland Golf can quickly explore different designs and “what if” scenarios in developing a high performance club, while minimize the need for expensive prototypes and the costs associated with performing physical tests.
When the models were validated against the experimental data, good to very good agreement was found between the simulation and the experimental data for club head speed and the dynamic loft and droop at the instant of contact with the ball. In addition, the MapleSim models were found to run significantly faster than similar models based on finite-element techniques.
“The MapleSim models we're running allow us to predict head delivery conditions with more variables, higher precision, and faster run times”, said John Rae, Research Manager, R&D, of Cleveland Golf. “Using MapleSim's simulation tools we can generate custom swing calculations based on every equipment variable, leaving nothing to speculation.”
With efficient, validated dynamic models of a golf driver, Cleveland Golf can quickly explore different designs and “what if” scenarios in developing a high performance club, while minimize the need for expensive prototypes and the costs associated with performing physical tests.
