Explanipedia

Ten questions in sports engineering: knee brace efficacy for sports injuries Open

Tasneem Sabir, Tom Allen, Michael J. Callaghan, Emma Hodson‐Tole · 2025

With growing support for more active healthier lifestyles, focus on injury prevention and treatment solutions is rising. One debated topic is the use of knee braces for knee injuries. Evidence and clinical recommendations in preventing and…

Electro‐Thermally Controlled Active Mechanical Metamaterials with Programmable Stiffness and Nonreciprocity Open

Jai Dunne, Robert D. Crapnell, Krzysztof K. Dudek, Tom Allen, Craig E. Banks , et al. · 2025

Active mechanical metamaterials have the potential to revolutionize material capabilities, by switching between different properties. The active mechanical metamaterial presented here can be remotely programmed to switch between compressiv…

The Soundtrack to Success: Can Bespoke Music Enhance Elite Athlete’s Health and Performance? Open

Tara Venkatesan, Hendrik Vincent Koops, Tom Allen, Zafar Iqbal, Sophie Curthoys , et al. · 2025

The convergence of neuroscience, AI, and music in elite sport presents a fascinating and largely untapped frontier for enhancing athlete health, well-being and performance. While scientific evidence broadly supports music’s benefits for sl…

Shaping the Narrative: The Role of Organisational Capital in Management Discussion and Analysis (Md&A) Tone Open

Md. Samsul Alam, Tom Allen, Premkanth Puwanenthiren, Wang Yan · 2025

Shaping the Narrative: The Role of Organisational Capital in Management Discussion and Analysis (MD&A) Tone Open

Md. Samsul Alam, Tom Allen, Premkanth Puwanenthiren, Wang Yan · 2025

Towards inclusive sports engineering research: considerations of research methods Open

Aimée C. Mears, Elisabeth M. P. Williams, Pui Wah Kong, Paul J. Wood, Kristina Brubacher , et al. · 2024

Understanding and addressing the needs of diverse demographics is critical for creating sports products or technologies that can enhance the enjoyment, safety, or performance for more inclusive populations. This perspective article has ide…

Generating novel tennis racket shape concepts using a theoretical morphospace Open

Robyn A. Grant, Vincent Bonhomme, Tom Allen · 2024

Statistical shape analysis, or morphometrics, is a technique commonly used in evolutionary biology to summarise a population of samples. Theoretical morphometrics extends the current population of samples into a theoretical space. Using th…

Contribution of Urea to Nitrite Production in Southern Ocean Waters with Contrasting Nitrifying Communities Open

James T. Hollibaugh, Aimee Oyinlade Okotie-Oyekan, Julian Damashek, Hugh W. Ducklow, Brian N. Popp , et al. · 2024

We compared the contribution of ammonia and urea to nitrite production in >100 samples of Southern Ocean waters with abundant and diverse ammonia-oxidizing archaeal (AOA) communities. Ammonia (AO) and urea (UO) oxidation rates were distrib…

Mechanical metamaterials for sports helmets: structural mechanics, design optimisation, and performance Open

Daniel Haid, Leon Foster, John Hart, Richard M. Greenwald, Tom Allen , et al. · 2023

Sports concussions are a public health concern. Improving helmet performance to reduce concussion risk is a key part of the research and development community response. Direct and oblique head impacts with compliant surfaces that cause lon…

Indentation and impact response of conventional, auxetic, and shear thickening gel infused auxetic closed cell foam Open

Mariafederica Parisi, Tom Allen, Martino Colonna, Nicola M. Pugno, Olly Duncan · 2023

Auxetic closed cell foams, and highly viscoelastic foams, both show potential to improve impact protection. Specifically, auxetics adapt to the shape of impacting bodies, while highly viscoelastic foams stiffen during severe impacts. So, w…

Finite element model to simulate impact on a soft tissue simulant Open

Adil Imam, Angus Hughes, Matt Carré, Heather Driscoll, Keith Winwood , et al. · 2023

A finite element model of an impact test on a soft tissue simulant, used as part of a shoulder surrogate, was developed in Ansys© LS-DYNA ® . The surrogate consisted of a metal hemicylindrical core, with a diameter of 75 mm, covered with a…

Repeatability of a bending stiffness test for snowboarding wrist protectors Open

Gemma Leslie, Keith Winwood, Weizhuo Wang, Nick Hamilton, Tom Allen · 2023

Snowboarding wrist protectors are typically designed to limit impact forces and prevent wrist hyperextension. The standard for snowboarding wrist protectors (ISO 20320:2020) includes a test for measuring their bending stiffness, when fitte…

Feasibility of Additively Manufacturing Synthetic Bone for Sports Personal Protective Equipment Applications Open

Gemma Leslie, Keith Winwood, A. J. R. Sanderson, Peter Zioupos, Tom Allen · 2023

Recommendations to improve ski area safety with obstacle padding Open

Marine Dorsemaine, Irving S. Scher, Tom Allen, Catherine Masson, Lenka Stepan , et al. · 2023

Investigating Foot Morphology in Rock Climbing Mammals: Inspiration for Biomimetic Climbing Shoes Open

Stephen Spurrier, Tom Allen, Robyn A. Grant · 2022

The sporting goods sector can serve as a proving ground for new technologies. We propose that climbing shoes are an excellent case study for showcasing a systematic approach to bio-inspired design. Foot adaptations to climbing have been de…

Morphometrics for sports mechanics: Showcasing tennis racket shape diversity Open

Robyn A. Grant, Luca Taraborrelli, Tom Allen · 2022

Tennis racket design has changed from its conception in 1874. While we know that modern tennis rackets are lighter and have larger heads than their wooden predecessors, it is unknown how their gross shape has changed specifically. It is al…

Quantifying wrist angular excursion on impact for Jab and Hook lead arm shots in boxing Open

Ian Gatt, Tom Allen, Jonathan Wheat · 2021

The hand region is reported as the most common injury site in boxing, with more observed time loss than any other area in this sport. The amount of wrist motion, specifically flexion, has been described as contributing to these injuries, y…

Impact testing of snowboarding wrist protectors Open

Caroline Adams, Tom Allen, Terry Senior, David James, Nick Hamilton · 2021

The wrist is a common injury site for snowboarders who often fall onto an outstretched hand. Wrist protectors are worn by some snowboarders to prevent wrist injuries by attenuating impact forces and limiting wrist extension. This paper pre…

New initiative: "Ten Questions in Sports Engineering" papers Open

Bert Blocken, Tom Allen, Ami Drory, Hugo G. Espinosa, Aimée C. Mears · 2021

Effect of materials and design on the bending stiffness of tennis rackets Open

Luca Taraborrelli, Simon Choppin, Steve Haake, Stefan Mohr, Tom Allen · 2021

Lawn tennis rackets have changed considerably since the origins of the game. Early rackets were wooden, making them heavier and more flexible than modern designs made from fibre-polymer composites. The fundamental frequency of a freely sus…

Shear modulus of conventional and auxetic open-cell foam Open

Nejc Novak, Olly Duncan, Tom Allen, Andrew Alderson, Matej Vesenjak , et al. · 2021

This work analyses shear moduli of conventional and auxetic open-cell polymer foams. Shear moduli are i) measured directly and ii) calculated by applying elasticity theory for isotropic solid materials, using Young's moduli and Poisson's r…

Effect of Compressive Strain Rate on Auxetic Foam Open

Olly Duncan, Nicolas Bailly, Tom Allen, Yvan Petit, Éric Wagnac , et al. · 2021

Auxetic foams have previously been shown to have benefits including higher indentation resistance than their conventional counterparts, due to their negative Poisson’s ratio, making them better at resisting penetration by concentrated load…

Fabrication, characterization and analytical modeling of gradient auxetic closed cell foams Open

Olly Duncan, Andrew Alderson, Tom Allen · 2021

Auxetic (negative Poisson’s ratio) and gradient open cell foams have shown promise for their conformability and high impact energy absorption—useful in applications like protective equipment, footwear and prosthetics. Recent methods fabric…

Wearables for disabled and extreme sports Open

Tom Allen, Jono Shepherd, Jane Wood, David Tyler, Olly Duncan · 2021

This chapter is concerned with the use of wearable devices for disabled and extreme sports. These sporting disciplines offer unique challenges for sports scientists and engineers. Disabled athletes often rely on and utilize more specialist…

Measuring behavior in sport and exercise Open

Tom Allen, Robyn A. Grant, Stefan Mohr, Jonathan Shepherd · 2020

How to write a manuscript for Sports Engineering Open

Tom Allen, Bert Blocken, Ami Drory, Hugo G. Espinosa · 2020

Correction to: A review of tennis racket performance parameters Open

Tom Allen, Simon Choppin, Duane Knudson · 2020

Efficacy of Density in Predicting the Protective Properties of Padded Clothing in Rugby Open

Adil Imam, Heather Driscoll, Keith Winwood, Prabhuraj D. Venkatraman, Tom Allen · 2020

World Rugby™ permits players to wear padded clothing meeting the requirements of Regulation-12, which limits density, thickness and impact performance. Due to non-uniform geometry, measuring the density of padding can be challenging and pr…

Effect of Surrogate Surface Compliance on the Measured Stiffness of Snowboarding Wrist Protectors Open

Gemma Leslie, Weizhuo Wang, Keith Winwood, Christopher M. Liauw, Nick Hamilton , et al. · 2020

Wrist injuries have been reported to account for 35%−45% of snowboarding injuries. Snowboarding wrist protectors are designed to limit impact forces and prevent wrist hyperextension. The absence of a standard for snowboarding wrist protect…

Use of Video for Teaching Sports Mechanics Open

John Eric Goff, Tom Allen · 2020

There is a shortage of young people studying physics and engineering and these professions could benefit from greater diversity. Sports engineering is often used as a tool to change the public perceptions of engineering and sporting exampl…

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