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The Engineering Approach to Winter Sports pp 277–310Cite as

Ice Skating

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Abstract

What we are proposing in this chapter is an overview of the ice skating. We are now not considering the figurative ice skating, but only the ice speed-skating. Furthermore, only few hints will be provided about the outdoor skating, focusing then on the indoor competitions. After an historical reconstruction of the origins of this sport, the analysis will be divided into two main blocks: the dynamical model and the aerodynamic analysis of a speed skater (both numerical and experimental). Few notes about the track will be discussed along the chapter.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    There is a written Latin text dated back to circa 1190 of William Fitzstephen (sub-deacon to Archbishop Thomas-a-Becket) which states [2]:

    When the great fen or moor which watereth the walls of the City (London) on the Northside is frozen, many young men play upon the ice [..] Some tie bones to their feet, [..] and shoving themselves by a little picked staff, do slide as swiftly as a bird flyeth.

  2. 2.

    An interested reader can refer to Martin [12].

  3. 3.

    This analysis has considered only the skating mechanics in the plane through the ankle, knee, and hip. An exorotation or abduction of the hip can provide some additional work outside this plane (see [29, 38]).

  4. 4.

    A non-holonomic constraint states an algebraic relationship in differential, non-integrable form, usually expressed in form of the time derivative of q: \(\varPsi (q,\dot{q},t) = 0\), generally written in the form \(A(q,t)\dot{q} = b(q,t)\). See [42].

  5. 5.

    One of the limitations of this model was to assume a constant body position of the athlete, but the combination of trunk and knee angle during a run involves an increase in k, the air friction coefficient. Further the fatigue of the athlete and its consequences are not considered.

  6. 6.

    It is a regime with a transition in boundary layer. The TrBL regime has a lower Reynolds number bound of 100000–200000 and an upper bound of about three to five million [57]. In Zdravkovich studies, like [56], this flow regime is further sub-divided, and the TrBL2 condition presents two laminar bubbles, while TrBL1 has a laminar bubble on one side of the cylinder and TrBL3 presents a spanwise disruption of bubbles.

  7. 7.

    This technique is based on a collimated beam of low energy electrons (20–200 eV) which bombards the surface of a crystalline material. It is useful to determine both the symmetry of the surface structure and the atomic positions of molecules on the surface.

  8. 8.

    This hypothesis is made to simplify the model, avoiding to introduce a biomechanical model for the skater.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dipartimento di Meccanica, Politecnico di Milano, Via Giuseppe La Masa, 1, Milano, Italy

    Edoardo Belloni

  2. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Politecnico di Milano, Milano, Italy

    Edoardo Sabbioni & Stefano Melzi

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  1. Edoardo Belloni
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Politecnico di Milano, Milano, Italy

    Francesco Braghin

  2. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Politecnico di Milano, Milano, Italy

    Federico Cheli

  3. AC Milan SpA, Milano, Italy

    Stefano Maldifassi

  4. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Politecnico di Milano, Milano, Italy

    Stefano Melzi

  5. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy

    Edoardo Sabbioni

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Belloni, E., Sabbioni, E., Melzi, S. (2016). Ice Skating. In: Braghin, F., Cheli, F., Maldifassi, S., Melzi, S., Sabbioni, E. (eds) The Engineering Approach to Winter Sports. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-3020-3_8

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