Using non-Newtonian fluids to create lighter,
safer hockey pads
One of my design jobs this summer was with Aegis Impact, an emerging sportswear company that is exploring using a non-Newtonian fluid called D3O as a way of absorbing impacts. Using D3O as the primary protective element can make hockey pads lighter than their conventional counterparts while also providing superior impact absorption and cut prevention.
Personal Contribution: Experimental Design, Experimental Procedure, Arduino and Sensors, data analysis in MATLAB, presenting data to a general audience.
Description of one of my proposed test setups. Altogether I proposed seven setups and developed the two most feasible concepts.
Brainstorming Phase
When I started with Aegis, I was given the task of creating a way to test the effectiveness of their hockey neckguards versus their competitors as well as to optimize their design as I saw fit. I started by brainstorming improvements and testing setups.
Test Setup
My final testing setup consisted of dropping a 20.4 kilogram weight onto hockey pads from a known height. This height was determined such that the weight strikes the hockey pad with the same kinetic energy as the world’s fastest recorded slapshot. An accelerometer fixed on the weight measures the change in acceleration when the weight collides with the pad, and this data is written to an SD card. The entire setup is powered by a portable charger for mobile phones. To decrease uncertainty, I performed this test dozens of times for each pad.
Data Analysis
Analysis of the acceleration data was done in MATLAB. When plotted, the data created visualizations like this one. The horizontal distance between the bounces can be used to determine the time-length of each bounce and from there the energy absorbed by the hockey pad.
Relaying Results
Throughout this project I generated various marketing deliverables for the company. These included videos of testing to be used in advertisements, tables of data illustrating the benefit of Aegis products versus its competitors, and in person presentations to non-engineering company stakeholders explaining the importance of my research.