Getting bounced: Investigating the loads and durability of a Pogo Stick
A light-hearted coronavirus lockdown project with a useful outcome
Newsletter EnginSoft Year 17 n°2
By Tim Hunter, Wolf Star Technologies, LLC | Will Mars, Endurica
This light-hearted technical article discusses a project undertaken between WolfStar Technologies’ Tim Hunter and Endurica’s Will Mars during the Coronavirus lockdown – to create a digital twin of a Pogo Stick in order to calculate its fatigue damage in the hands of a novice user. The Pogo Stick was turned into a load transducer using finite element analysis (FEA) so that the strain gauge locations could be identified, and the strain data collected, to create the operating deflection shapes of the toy.
These were then fed into Endurica to subsequently calculate the fatigue damage on the rubber – with all load and damage calculations processed in real time.
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CASE STUDY
While metals and rubbers both experience temperature-dependent fatigue, rubber's response is significantly more sensitive due to its low thermal conductivity and unique material properties. Endurica’s fatigue solvers account for these complex thermal effects, ensuring accurate analysis and helping engineers optimize rubber durability in real-world conditions.
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