Paddle/blade testing for canoes and kayaks: Feasibility of an innovative methodology

提高英国选手在皮划艇比赛中的表现的一种方法是提高他们的装备性能；尤其是独木舟的船壳和桨叶。目前，英国体育正在努力改进桨叶的设计和构造；然而，目前，这些叶片是通过运动员的水上测试来评估的。这不可避免地是一个有点主观的过程，并且由于在过程中人为干预而引入的可重复性的缺乏导致了结论的不确定性。一些研究人员在实验室中对桨叶和桨叶进行了测试，但在大多数情况下，桨叶在水中的运动比实际的行程要简单得多，因此结果不能被视为真实情况下各方面性能的可靠指标。因此，水上数据的可重复性不够，实验室数据也不够真实。缺乏现实和可重复的定量数据意味着很难开发新的设计，也很难确定计算机预测是否准确。该提案旨在研究开发技术的可行性，以便在实验室条件下对独木舟和皮划艇的桨叶进行现实、可重复、准确和可靠的测试和分析，以便对不同设计进行定量比较。如果成功，该技术可以用于测试和分析程序，以评估和评估新的叶片设计，从而为参加2012年奥运会的英国选手提供性能改进。同时，使用该技术的进一步基础研究将提高对桨叶周围高度复杂和动态流动的科学理解。长期目标是在设计阶段预测和优化不同项目中不同运动员的叶片性能。这项研究将从测量叶片在三维空间中相对于独木舟和皮划艇的水流的路径开始，使用电影动画行业中常用的动作捕捉技术。然后将设计一个测试装置，可以在测试水箱中精确地复制叶片的这些路径。钻机的输出将是通过划桨周期在每个时刻作用在叶片上的力的知识。分析这些时程，找出叶片所表现出的使其具有高效率的关键特征。这反过来又允许定义一个测量，可以用来描述给定叶片的性能，从而允许在性能方面直接比较不同的设计。为了演示所开发的技术，将在钻机中测试一小系列桨，具有不同的测量桨的风格。这将使我们了解到划桨风格的微小变化对结果的敏感性，这将表明不同运动员和不同项目的最佳设计是如何不同的。结果将与现有的基于运动员和教练在水上测试的数据相关联，以改进过程。最后，除了测试桨技术，使用测试平台来分析不同的划桨风格的性能将进行调查，看看它是否可以有效地用作运动员的训练辅助。

One way to improve the performance of UK competitors in canoeing/kayaking events is to improve the performance of their equipment; in particular the canoe hulls and the paddle blades. Currently UK Sport are working to improve the design and construction of paddle blades; however, at the moment, the blades are evaluated by testing on-the-water testing using athletes. This is inevitably a somewhat subjective process, and the lack of repeatability introduced by the human intervention in the process leads to an undesirable level of uncertainty into the conclusions.Some researchers have tested oar and paddle blades in laboratories, but in most cases the motions of the blade through the water has been much simpler than the realistic stroke, so the results cannot be regarded as reliable indicators of all aspects of performance in the real situation. Thus the on-the-water data is not repeatable enough, and the laboratory data is not realistic enough. The lack of realistic and repeatable quantitative data means that it is difficult to develop new designs, and also it is hard to determine whether computer predictions are accurate.This proposal is aimed at examining the feasibility of developing techniques for realistically, repeatably, accurately, and reliably testing and analysing paddle blades for canoes and kayaks in laboratory conditions, to allow quantitative comparisons between different designs. If successful, the techniques developed can be used in the context of a testing and analysis procedure to evaluate and assess new blade designs and so deliver performance improvements to UK competitors for the 2012 Olympic Games. At the same time further fundamental studies using the techniques will improve scientific understanding of the highly complex and dynamic flow around paddle blades. The long-term goal is the prediction and optimisation of blade performance at the design stage for different athletes in different events. The research will start by measuring the path of the blades in three dimensional space relative to the water for canoes and kayaks using motion capture techniques commonly employed in the film animation industry. A test rig will then be designed which can exactly replicate these paths of the blade through the water in a test tank.The output from the rig will be a knowledge of the forces acting on the blade at each moment through the paddling cycle. These time-histories will be analysed to find out the key features exhibited by blades which give high efficiency. This will in turn allow the definition of a measure which can be used to characterise the performance of a given blade / and thus allow different designs to be compared directly in terms of performance.In order to demonstrate the techniques developed, a small series of paddles will be tested in the rig, with different measured paddling styles. This will allow an understanding to be gained of how sensitive the results are to small changes in the paddling style, which will give an indication of how different the best designs would be for different athletes and different events. Results will be correlated with existing data based on testing on-the-water with athletes and coaches to refine the process. Finally, in addition to testing the paddle technology the use of the test rig to analyse the performance of different paddling styles will be investigated, to see if it can usefully be used as a training aid for athletes.