Pole vault composite failure analysis

Worked example of what a good 10-page paper topic looks like — a student paper on fiberglass layup design that produces graded stiffness along the length. Referenced for the construction principle (rolled from a corner, not as a jelly roll, to put more layers in the middle).

One I really liked: a few years ago I had two students who were pole vaulters in the class, and they did papers on how you design a pole vault pole, which is really interesting. I want sources. I don't want how the automotive company builds cars — that's a little broad. The pole-vaulting pole was perfect. How do you design a fiberglass pole vault pole? It has different stiffnesses along the length. Anybody know how they do it? Instead of rolling up the fiberglass in a jelly roll like this, you roll it from a corner. If you think about it, you've got more layers in the middle than you do on the ends, which is exactly what you want in the stiffness of a pole vault pole. You see these poles bending more than 180 degrees because they're really strong, flexible fiberglass with many layers in the middle. Not particularly magic or rocket science — it's basically just how you lay up something, which was interesting. I'd never thought about it before.

One of my favorites was, when we were doing presentations one year, I had two students independently do presentations on pole vault poles, because they were pole vaulters. The interesting thing about a pole vault pole is it's made out of a sheet composite that's rolled up from the corner so that you get more material in the center than you do on the ends — so it's stiffer in the center. Pretty simple, but it teaches you the concepts of stiffness and geometry and material from something simple as designing a pole vault pole.

Two MIT students who were themselves pole vaulters did this as their paper topic. Tom holds it up as a good example of focused scope (the pole and how it's made) vs. bad scope (history of pole vaulting). Tom briefly explains the variable-stiffness layered composite.

You could take a technology — one student did Japanese sword-smithing. They used to have a little display in the hallway of these students who had made a Japanese sword on their own. Some students have done the HMS Titanic. Some students from nuclear engineering have done nuclear power plants. A couple of students one year both did pole vaulting. They were both pole vaulters at MIT. Turns out a pole for a pole vaulter — you ever seen them, they bend more than 180 degrees and they don't break. It's because it's a composite material that's layered and has variable stiffness. It's actually very interesting technology.