Kettering University sophomore Linda Hunt is a hockey enthusiast interested in the physics of hockey sticks.

Recently, she approached Kettering professor Dan Russell, whose expert physics commentary on the “sweet” spot of baseball bats has appeared in national media outlets throughout the country, about research on the vibrational properties of composite and wood hockey sticks.

At issue: why today's expensive one-piece composite sticks break every dozen games or so, just like their old-fashioned wooden counterparts.

Hunt, of Shelby Township, approached Russell about the study while working an on-campus co-op with Dan Ludwigsen, associate professor of physics. The project deals with Helmholtz resonators, which act as acoustic filters or amplifiers.  Many automobiles use Helmholtz resonators as part of the intake manifold to filter out particular frequencies from the engine noise.

So how does this project relate to the idea of studying hockey sticks?

Physics is the science of matter and energy, and the interactions between the two grouped into traditional fields such as acoustics, optics and mechanics among others. Since a hockey stick is used to shoot a puck, you have matter in the form of the puck and energy in the form of a slap shot movement to fire the puck.

lzo, much of the work on Ludwigsen’s project took place in the Applied Physics Acoustics Laboratory on the second floor of the Academic Building, where Hunt first saw all of the bats used in testing the “sweet” spot. In the corner of the lab stood a hockey stick, which caught Hunt’s eye and eventually prompted her query of Russell about the project idea.

Russell was willing to work with Hunt because the idea sounded interesting and because of her enthusiasm.

“This is purely an extracurricular research interest that’s not tied to any class project,” he said "We’re at the beginning of the project and don’t have much data to report on yet.”

But he said this project, which will span several years during Hunt’s academic career, does have the potential to produce some interesting results.

As a recreational hockey player, Hunt initially wondered if any researchers had conducted studies on hockey sticks to determine why they break the way they do.
“Dr. Russell and I did some research and found only a few minor studies on hockey sticks, primarily from a researcher at a university in Montreal,” she said.

Added Russell: “There really isn’t much available in terms of studies that investigate the vibrational properties of composite and wood hockey sticks. But the idea of using physics and acoustics to see if we can learn anything useful about hockey sticks is very compelling.”

The initial question the two hope to examine is this: is there anything about how a hockey stick vibrates that influences its overall performance?

“We’re going to take an open-ended approach at first,” Russell said. “We’ll study vibration modes of different blades -- wood and composite -- and hopefully speak with hockey players, perhaps from the Flint Generals and ask them questions about hockey stick performance that might lead us in a specific direction.”

Overall, Russell and Hunt hope that they achieve important results, which could help stick manufacturers when developing new products for the sport.

And although this project is just beginning, Russell is pleased with Hunt’s desire to study the vibrational properties of sticks.

“It’s nice when a student comes to you and asks if they could talk about a potential research subject, especially when it has nothing to do with their classes,” he said.

For more information about Kettering’s physics program, visit www.kettering.edu/futurestudents/undergraduate/appliedphysics.jsp. For more information on the Applied Physics Acoustics Laboratory, visit www.kettering.edu/futurestudents/undergraduate/appliedphysics_acoustic_lab.jsp.