Development of a Compression Test Method for Badminton Shuttlecock Feathers

Abstract

The current badminton shuttlecock products are highly ineffective. The bird feather shuttlecocks used in official competitions have an unsustainably high change count due to rapid breakage from repeated racquet strikes. Meanwhile, the current synthetic shuttlecocks lack the structural properties of their feather counterparts to produce the desired aerodynamics as a projectile. This study discusses two material testing methods: the feather compression and hysteresis test, which can provide relevant mechanical data to be incorporated into the manufacturing process of future synthetic shuttlecocks. The compressive moduli from six feather shuttlecock products (four goose and two duck) were compared using the proposed methods at the strain rate of 1.15 mm/60 s. Subsequently, a three-cycle hysteresis test was conducted at an increasing strain rate of 1.15 mm/120 s, 1.15 mm/80 s, and 1.15 mm/60 s. The compression results were comparable to those from previous studies; however, there are currently no hysteresis data of shuttlecock feathers were available for comparison. The proposed methods have the potential to provide vital mechanical data that should be taken into account for future synthetic shuttlecock designs.