Finite Element Analysis of a cricket bat

Solid Mechanics (ES240)Final Project

Widusha Illeperuma12-04-2009

Outline

• Introduction

• Project description

• Modeling and results

Introduction to cricket

• The sport cricket is around 500 years old• This is a bat and ball team sport• Considered as the world second most popular

sport• Match is played between two teams of eleven

players

Cricket ball

• Made from cork nucleus and a leather cover• Weighs between 155.9 to 163 g• Circumference should be no more than

22.9cm

Cricket bat

Blade

Handle

Made from willow (strong, lightweight and good shock resistance)

Made from cane (good shock absorbing properties)

Properties of cricket bat

John et al

Bat ball impact

Bat ball impact (begins when ball touches the bat and finishes when they separate)

What happens with impact?

• High speed impact occurs between ball and the bat, player and protective equipment

• There will be internal stresses developed in both bat and ball

Understanding impact dynamics

Development of cricket equipment

Improve player safety and

performance

Project description

• Determine deformation, stress strain distribution in cricket bat

• Consider both 2D and 3D analysis

• Consider both static and dynamic analysis

Why FEA?

• Greatly reduces the cost• Improve the design capabilities of engineers• Can get the results quickly

2D Analysis of ball in static condition

Assumptions• Ball behaves as a linear elastic material• Ball material is rubber• Bat-ball impact occurs at +/-150 from x

axis• Boundary conditions are applied directly

opposite to loading

Results of 2D analysis of ball

Initial condition of the ball

Deformed ball

Stress on the ball

Strain on the ball

2D Analysis of bat in static condition

Initial condition of the bat

Deformed bat

Deformation of the bat

Reaction force on the bat

Max RF

Bending angle

Finding suitable position on the bat which gives minimum bending and maximum reaction force

Around 0.16m from the bottom of bat

0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

160

180

200

220

240

260

Reaction force Bending angle

Position along the bat(m)

Rea

ctio

n fo

rce/

(N)

P lot of reaction forces and bending angle with position of the bat

7.89

7.90

7.91

7.92

7.93

7.94

7.95

7.96

7.97

7.98

Bending angle/(deg)

Suitable position to hit

Suitable position

0.16m

‘’Cricket bats are designed to hit the ball 12-20 cm up from the base of the bat’’

Experimental results

3D analysis of bat and ball in dynamic loading

Fixed bc

Velocity

Deformation with the impact

Stress propagation with the impact

Conclusions

• Finite element analysis is a useful method to analyze the impact in cricket bats

• This can make a change in the bat manufacturing industry

Future work

• Analyze the impact when ball comes with an angle and bat hits with an angle

• Vibration analysis of the impact

• Determine exit velocity that produces maximum speed

• Viscoelastic behavior of cricket ball

Reference

• John et al, ‘Multi-directional vibration analysis of cricket bats’

• Iwatsubo et al, ‘Numerical analysis of golf club head and ball at various impact points’

• Hariharan et al, ‘Inertial and vibrational characteristics of a cricket bat’

• Smith et al, ‘An examination of cricket bat performance’

• Subic et al, ‘Materials in cricket’