Smart Table Tennis Racket with Tunable Stiffness for Diverse Play Styles and Unconventional Technique Training

Published in Advanced Materials Technologies, 2021

Recommended citation: Xuefeng Zhou, Lijuan Wang, Dongyang Huang, Yudai Liang, Quan Shi, Hong Yaying, Mengying Zhang, Huayan Pu, Weijia Wen, Jinbo Wu. Smart Table Tennis Racket with Tunable Stiffness for Diverse Play Style and Unconventional Technique Training. Advanced Materials Technologies. 2021, 6: 2100535. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/admt.202100535

Abstract: Smart technologies bring innovation to the life and sports arena. To adapt to diverse play styles and improve unconventional technique of table tennis players, a smart table tennis racket with tunable stiffness based on anisotropic electrorheological elastomers (EREs) is developed. The EREs are prepared in the designed mold under the electric field to form an anisotropic structure that consisted of electrorheological particles and facilitated the generation of interparticle saturation surface polarization and the local electric field. Therefore, the electrorheological property of anisotropic EREs is significantly promoted, attaining a relative electrorheological effect of 17 160% in shear mode, and the incremental shear storage and compression modulus of 5.2 and 6.4 MPa. By applying an electric field, the smart racket successfully changes the trajectory of balls, reduced ejection angle by 11% and increased ejection velocity by 2%.

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DOI: 10.1002/admt.202100535