Biomechanical testing and sport equipment design

The paper discusses possible ways for incorporation of biomechanical tests in sport equipment design. It is proposed that the testing of such equipment should simulate relevant sport actions with the emphasis on the scale and magnitude of observed loads and their relevant frequencies. However, such procedures require more intimate knowledge of the dynamics of the human body in terms of the exerted forces' magnitude, and relevant internal load distributions and frequencies, which should be obtained experimentally. A proposed design and the testing of a racing wheelchair seat utilizing a finite element model is discussed. The approach combines mathematical and computer modelling with experimental validation, based on specially-designed biomechanical tests. It is also pointed out that available commercial equipment is not always reliable and purpose-designed instrumentation is frequently needed to provide the necessary data with adequate accuracy. Examples of such instrumentation, a telemetric accelerometer for a bobsled and a built-in javelin force transducer, are discussed in some detail.