Technical Challenge
FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association) sets quality and measurement criteria of soccer balls, including features such as internal pressure, circumference, and weight. Soccer ball and soccer shoe (cleat) designers tune these characteristics to improve performance within these guidelines.
Product designers need accurate, predictive simulations to understand how changes in material response, geometry, and surface roughness of the ball and shoe can affect the dynamic response of the shoe/ball impact.
Veryst Solution
Veryst measured the mechanical properties of soccer ball materials and developed a three-dimensional explicit finite element simulation to model a soccer ball kick.
The current model accounts for the nonlinear ball material's behavior, the ball’s internal pressure and the friction between the ball and the shoe. Further efforts involve nonlinear PolyUMod® material models for the ball materials as well as the cleat compliance.
The work demonstrates how the ball/cleat interaction affects both ball velocity and rotation.
