A Study on Curl phenomina of Curling Stone

(1st report: Experimental approach to water film model)

Abstract

Curling is one of the winter sports called chess on ice. Athletes are required high level skill and smart strategy. This paper deals with curling phenomenon of rotation stone on the ice. To Understand this phenomenon, polypropylene and Teflon sheet makes low friction environment, and curling stone experiment was carried out. Then curling stone phenomenon was reproduced on force plate instead of ice. According to the experimental conditions, it was concluded that the curling stone phenomenon occurred due to the existence of a water film. From this, we devised the equation of motion of the curling stone on ice based on the water film model and incorporated it into the simulation to reproduce the water film at the bottom of the stone. In this simulation, it was possible to reproduce the condition that the curling stone phenomenon is manifested by changing the state of the water film.