Surfboard Flex Measurement

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1

Hi folks,

I’m building a dynamic modelling tool for surfboards and one of the measurements I would like is the flexibility of the board, particularly during high-stress manoeuvres. Ideally a matrix system over an area of the board would be ideal, but I would also be happy if I was able to measure over particular points at a time.

I’ve had a bit of a look into strain guage rosettes and a few flex sensors, but before I went and ordered anything I thought I’d see if there was any other ideas that seemed practical? Obviously the relative amount of flex is quite low on a surfboard, so the flex sensors sold by Sparkfun don’t seem to have a high enough sensitivity to measure such small changes.

Thanks,

ko

2

Usually on aircraft wing sections, or other objects suffering under bending stresses they measure by strainguages on either side of the wing/truss/surfboard. One side measure elongation of the surface, the other side compression. Each would be connected to either the upper or lower side of a wheatstone bridge. Strain guage rosettes are used if you want to measure surface strain in multiple axis. This is important for understanding shear-stresses along with tension and compression stresses. As the flexing angle is minimal, and even lesser the stiffer the part under test is, flexing sensors are not going to be much help.