Project studies Robin Schumacher

Wooden Hydrofoils: Water sports equipment with buoyancy generation, application of wooden materials

The project was completed as part of the Master's degree course in Wood Science and Technology at the Institute of Forest Utilization and Forest Technology. After a basic analysis of how hydrofoil components work, different concepts were developed and compared. In the methodology, modeling was carried out which made it possible to determine dimensions for a calculation for existing wing models. Based on these dimensions, safety coefficients were determined and for which wing types a substitution with solid wood or natural fiber reinforced plastics (NFRP) makes sense. Both the design in solid wood and the NFRP composite presented in the work offer approaches for reducing the ecological footprint of hydrofoils. Due to the lower mechanical properties of natural materials, not all performance classes of hydrofoils can be mapped.