Ski slope today, hydroelectric power plant tomorrow

There are plenty of exciting working fields for our structural dynamics research teams

Due to the large number of moving parts and components in mechanical engineering practice, structural dynamics is becoming increasingly important. Dr. Franz-Josef Falkner, lecturer at the MCI Mechatronics department has been involved in various projects in this research area at for some time now and conducts both experimental and numerical investigations with his project teams.

In addition to vibration measurements in a specially equipped laboratory, they also carry out field measurements, such as recently in collaboration with the Innsbrucker Kommunalbetriebe or the municipality of Telfs. The results of these measurements are used for the validation of numerical calculation models as well as for determining unknown calculation parameters. On the basis of these models, structural dynamic optimizations are subsequently performed.

In cooperation with the company HEAD Sport GmbH in Kennelbach, an interesting project for improving the handling characteristics of alpine skis was implemented. The layered structure of a modern alpine ski is a combination of a wide variety of materials, all of which exhibit very different deformation behavior. The bending and torsional stiffness of the ski are particularly important for its handling properties. As part of the project, the team determined mechanical properties of all materials and developed corresponding mechanical models to predict the bending and torsional stiffness.

Students from the Mechatronics department developed innovative numerical calculation methods as part of several final theses and carried out numerous static and dynamic tests to validate these models. The next steps will be to optimize ski structures in order to be able to develop the right ski for every skier.