UWE Bristol Engineering showcase 2015
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Roy Lewis<br />
BEng Mechanical <strong>Engineering</strong><br />
Project Supervisor<br />
Dr. John Kamalu<br />
Design and Manufacture Principles of a Longboard<br />
Long boarding is a form of being at the brink of disaster while maintaining the illusion of control.<br />
A longboard is similar to a skateboard except it has a longer wheelbase, and bigger wheels. They are used primarily for hobby and sport and for some people as<br />
a main form of transport. The design of the long board would usually focus on two main objectives: stability at high speed and being able to have a tight turn<br />
angle. There are various types of ride styles ranging from simple cruising to downhill speed. These different ride styles change the design and material<br />
composition of the board.<br />
This is because the two objectives contradict each other. In order for the board to be stable at high speed it would need a low centre of gravity and a high<br />
stiffness. On the other hand the lower the board is, the less leverage there is to make tight turns and, the stiffer the material the more spring energy will be<br />
lost from the material. A shorter wheel base usually provides more stability at the cost of losing tighter turning angles, which the longer wheel base boards can<br />
achieve. When the wheel comes in contact with the underside of the board, this is known as wheel-bite, it throws the rider from the board, so should be<br />
avoided within the design.<br />
Aims<br />
• To review the current materials used for the<br />
manufacture of long boards, and the effects of the<br />
material properties on the performance of long<br />
boards.<br />
• To study the effects of shape, stress and strain<br />
distributions on long board performance.<br />
• To carry out computer simulations of different<br />
combinations of materials, shape and long board<br />
performance in order to select an optimum design.<br />
• To manufacture an optimised long board design.<br />
• To carry out experimental tests on an optimum<br />
long board aimed at specific market group.<br />
Red grip tape with cut out<br />
heartbeat attached to carbon<br />
fibre woven and carbon fibre UD<br />
Fibreglass woven<br />
PVC Foam inner core<br />
Fibreglass woven<br />
Carbon Fibre UD and<br />
Carbon Fibre woven<br />
England is trying to reduce the amount of people driving vehicles by creating more cycle paths and incentives. These new paths offer a safer riding environment<br />
for longborders.<br />
By eliminating certain problems associated with longboarding such as wheel bite and weight. It makes the longboarding experience a more enjoyable one.<br />
Longboarding is an art you don’t have to be great to get started, but you have to get started to be great.<br />
Project Scope<br />
further improving longboard design by comparing a<br />
current top of the range plywood longboard, when<br />
loaded with 784.8N(80kg) to a new design made of a<br />
composite sandwich structure. The plywood<br />
longboard showed a deflection of -22mm and the<br />
composite structure -27mm. The result shows that it<br />
is possible to quite closely replicate the deflection<br />
and increase the aesthetics, of the plywood board<br />
with the use of software tools such as Abacus (FEA)<br />
and Solidworks. Other problems were faced such as<br />
weight; it was found that by using a composite<br />
sandwich structure a reduction in weight of 40% is<br />
obtainable for a longboard of similar size to the<br />
plywood model.
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