Badminton is a tennis-like game that has gained in popularity over the last century and is now widely practised – especially in Hong Kong. Traditionally, the game relies on natural shuttlecocks involving feathers from actual birds. Alternatively, synthetic shuttlecocks relying on plastic feathers are also widely used, owing to their longer durability and cheaper cost. Synthetic shuttlecocks, however, exhibit flight dynamics characteristics that differ from those of their natural counterpart – which makes the players’ experience less authentic. Addressing this issue requires improving the aero-structural design of synthetic shuttlecocks – which is the ultimate objective of this UROP project.
A previous UROP project consisted in experimentally characterizing the aerodynamics of both natural and synthetic shuttlecocks, which was performed using small-scale wind tunnel tests. The next step - and present UROP project - is to virtually reproduce these experimental tests using numerical simulations pertaining to the aero-elasticity of shuttlecocks. Objective will be to infer and optimize the aero-structural properties of a synthetic-like shuttlecock, for its flight dynamics resemble to that of its natural counterpart.
Successfully conducting this research action will imply overcoming various technical challenges. This will require the UROP participant(s) to acquire and master specific knowledge and skills, whether fundamental (flight dynamics, aeroelasticity, etc.) or more practical (exploiting experimental data, performing advanced numerical simulations). On another hand, this research action shall provide the UROP participant(s) an exciting opportunity to taste the water of what R&D is all about, by tackling a challenging problem of sports engineering within an actual research framework.