As Progressive continually endeavour to offer industry leading product development services, we are now pleased to be able to perform advanced numerical analysis through the use of Finite Element Analysis (FEA) and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD).
Through a recently formed partnership with Arup’s Advanced Technology and Research Group, many years of experience gained in the building and automotive industries is being applied to the sports industry. Technology designed for car seats is being applied to sports bras and sports apparel, with airbag technology allowing an understanding of air chamber performance in sports shoes. The complex interaction of air or water with the athlete and their equipment can be modelled and used to refine a design before embarking on costly physical testing. Human thermal comfort can be understood in the context of the built environment and human body mechanics considered when modelling sporting equipment, protective apparel or occupant safety.
One example where investment in FEA has been shown to be beneficial is in understanding the structural performance of a Client’s bicycle frame. Through creation of a computer model of the frame, failure mechanisms under hundreds of different dynamic loading scenarios could be studied, including fatigue testing. Strategies for managing load, life cycle, manufacturing quality and optimisation of material usage could be proposed. All of this being possible without the need for building a physical prototype or undertaking destructive testing on it.
