Ski vibrations and damping

Vibrations and damping characteristics of skis are important with respect to the gliding, stability, and holding ability of skis which again affect skier safety. Some evidence exists that ski stiffness and ski weight also play a role in determining the term known among skiers as “ski damping.” This paper reports the vibratory properties of skis as measured in the laboratory and the field by using strain gage and LVDT transducers. Five well‐known slalom skis are examined in the laboratory and results compared for one‐dimensional bending vibrations. In the field, one alpine ski is analyzed for vibrations in bending, torsion, and sideflex under the most common ski maneuvers. When carefully tested in free vibrations, skis are found to conform fairly well with the accepted models of viscous free vibrations with logarithmic decrement damping. To obtain damping data over a wider frequency range (8–50 Hz) the skis were put on a shaker and magnification factors and resonance sharpnesses compared. Field testing sho...