Accuracy Improvement of FEM Model for Impact Sound Prediction of Golf Clubs

Abstract

    A sound simulation program has been developed in our research in response to the high demands for predicting the sound that radiates from golf clubs during the design phases. Our prior studies have confirmed that each simulated sound is closely similar to the experimental sound in cases of a simple flat plate, a one-end enclosed cylinder and iron club heads, with respect to the frequency 12KHz spectrums. In the case of radiated sound from a titanium driver head, the dominant frequency component of sound pressure is set at around 4000Hz. However, the dominant component for our simulated sound is lower than that of measured sound. In this paper, the difference between the simulation and experiments is investigated. We also figure out a way to improve our model accuracy with respect to golf driver hitting sound. Regarding a cylinder model which is closed at one bottom end and is assumed as the pre-study golf head model, the mass of a Finite Element (FE) model is increased by 0.45% if welded parts are implemented in the model. However, the sound frequency spectrum of the FE model with welded parts is increased by 300Hz, since the parts are expected to increase the modal stiffness. The dominant peak frequency of our improved model is almost the same as that of experimental data. This modal shape corresponds to a vibrating membrane. The mode has one edge, and no nodal diameters. This mode is also expected to influence hitting performance.