Golf Ball Dimple Pattern for Distance and Stability
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current golf ball dimple patterns do not fully optimize flight performance, as they fail to maximize lift and minimize drag effectively, leading to suboptimal distance and stability in flight.
Innovation Solution
A golf ball design featuring a dimple pattern with a specific ratio of dimple area to surface area, rotational symmetry, and mirror-symmetrical units, which promotes turbulization and enhances lift and reduces drag, meeting specific mathematical formulas for optimal performance.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If conventional dimple patterns are used, then the golf ball can maintain basic flight capability, but flight performance is not optimized and distance is limited
Solution Approach 1:
The dimple pattern is segmented into multiple types (first, second, third, and fourth types) with different characteristics. Each type serves a specific function in the overall aerodynamic performance, allowing optimization of both distance and stability through differentiated design elements rather than using a single uniform dimple pattern
Solution Approach 2:
Different regions of the golf ball surface are assigned different dimple types based on their location. The pattern varies by region to optimize local aerodynamic effects, with specific arrangements designed to enhance both flight distance and stability in different flight phases
2Force
If dimple density is increased to enhance turbulization, then lift force is improved, but drag reduction may be compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The invention optimizes specific parameters including the ratio of dimple area to total surface area (So ≥ 81.0%), the distribution of different dimple types, and the relationship between dimple diameter and golf ball diameter (9.60%-10.37%). These parameter changes balance turbulization enhancement for lift with drag reduction through controlled separation patterns
Solution Approach 2:
The dimple pattern functions as a composite aerodynamic structure combining multiple dimple types with different geometries and distributions. This composite approach allows the surface to exhibit multiple aerodynamic functions simultaneously, optimizing both lift generation and drag reduction
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The golf ball achieves superior flight performance with increased distance and stability, as demonstrated by meeting the mathematical criteria for dimple patterns that enhance turbulization and aerodynamic efficiency.
Implementation Method 1
The dimples disturb the air flow around the golf ball during flight to cause turbulent flow separation. This phenomenon is referred to as 'turbulization'.
Implementation Method 2
Due to the turbulization, separation points of the air from the golf ball shift backwards leading to a reduction of drag.
Implementation Method 3
The turbulization promotes the displacement between the separation point on the upper side and the separation point on the lower side of the golf ball, which results from the backspin, thereby enhancing the lift force that acts upon the golf ball.
Data Source
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AI summary
A golf ball 2 has a plurality of dimples on a surface thereof. A ratio So of a sum of areas of the dimples relative to a surface area of a phantom sphere of the golf ball is equal to or greater than 81.0%. A ratio Rs of a number of the dimples each having a diameter of equal to or greater than 9.60% but equal to or less than 10.37%, of a diameter of the golf ball, relative to a total number of the dimples, is equal to or greater than 50%. A dimple pattern of each hemisphere of the phantom sphere includes three units that are rotationally symmetrical to each other. A dimple pattern of each unit includes two small units that are mirror-symmetrical to each other. The golf ball meets the following mathematical formula (1). Rs≥−2.5*So+273