What's this all about?

The purpose of this blog is to record what I learn about how to model a kiteboards mechanical properties so that better design decisions can be made when DIY'ing a kiteboard. The end outputs from this will ideally be:

• the development and refinement of a model to be able to put some numbers around design questions in the vein of  'all else being equal, if I change this but that much, what happens to this other thing'.
• the development of builders rules of thumb: 'if I take 1.5mm of core thickness off I should increase the quantity of glass by one third'.
• (aspirational) predictions of board behaviour in the wild.

More than anything, modelling the properties of the board is just plain fascinating. It draws on theory developed for beam bending, composite materials, numerical mathematics, continuum mechanics and of course kiteboarding technique.

My hope is that this will evolve into a useful tool for designing kiteboards and that in the hands of other more experience than me in the dark art of backyard board building ('BBB') will be able to add some practice 'margins of safety' to take the theory off the page and make it a tool that helps make better design decisions and avoid breaking the boards or building a dud.

I have already started creating a spreadsheet that models the flex and the stresses in the outer skins. Its accuracy is still to be tested but the vast amount of google searches I've done to pull this together warranted recording for posterity and hopefully for the benefit of other BBB with an interest in theory (do they exist......big question)

The models are necessarily starting out simple because... well that's much easier than doing a not-simple model. Whether it evolves into something more complex or remains an FYI project remains to be seen. However, I'm pretty pumped about the snippets of insight that might come out of it on the way.

Initially the model will focus on modelling the flex of the board and predictions about its performance under test conditions.  The aspects of handling, the stuff of prototypes and underpaid pro's, will hopefully come out of the boards I build and document on the companion site to this Virgin Kiteboard Project.

You you do find this blog interesting or useful please let me know!!!! I hope you  enjoy!