Kelvin Lake MEng CEng MIMechE is a Senior Lecturer at the School of Logistics and Manufacturing Engineering at the University of Wales: Trinity St Davids (UWTSD). He and his colleague Dr Ross Head, a product designer with Cerebra Innovation Centre and lecturer in Product Design at the university, regularly kitesurf on Swansea Bay. Kelvin is Programme Director on the new
Extreme Sports Engineering BEng and MEng course, which opens at UWTSD in September 2014.
Putting their passion for kitesurfing, and keenness to promote this and other UWTSD engineering and design courses together, they devised a somewhat adventurous endeavour: to kitesurf across the Bristol Channel, from Woolacombe in North Devon to Swansea. The aim, as well, is to raise the profile of local industry and manufacturing; and raise money for the
Wales Air Ambulance and
Maritime Volunteer Service (MVS).
Kelvin and Ross intend to promote the new course, as well as the existing engineering offering, by using the university’s facilities to demonstrate just what students can achieve.
After a great deal of materials research and testing, using modern analytical techniques such as Finite Element Analysis (FEA) and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), they will be using surf boards designed by Ross, which are being manufactured by UWTSD. The kites are supplied by a company started by a graduate of UWTSD, Oli Thorman (who is also taking part in the crossing).
They are aiming to make the 33-mile journey, predicted to take about three hours, in October. However, tides, wind direction and weather conditions will strongly influence the endeavour, so the team will be on standby over a number of weeks, in order to experience optimum conditions. There is, they say, no record of a kitesurf crossing of the Bristol Channel; it is 12 miles wider than the English Channel (Dover to Calais), where a past crossing, at an average speed of 10mph, took a little under two hours.
Kelvin explains: “At the university we have a lot of new courses being validated and coming on stream. The BEng and MEng in Extreme Sports Engineering has the same fundamental elements as, for example, automotive engineering. But in order to attract students, and to capture the increased interest in areas such as extreme sports equipment, we are branching out into new content areas. We have seen an opportunity to apply mechanical engineering principles to a subject matter that is exciting to students.”
After Ross expressed a desire one day to attempt the crossing by kitesurf, the two friends decided to put the plan to action. The rationale for the event itself is a promotion for the new course; and to illustrate the facilities available at the university, as well as in local industry. They will manufacture the boards themselves using a variety of techniques, slightly adapting the commercial process.
Kelvin and Ross both agree: “We want to have fun, but we also want to raise awareness of the new course, and also the automotive engineering and product design degrees, and attract engineering and design students.”
Ross explains: “We are making two different kinds of boards, mostly so that we can adapt to different conditions, and increase our opportunity to make the crossing. The basic design was carried out using computer aided design (CAD) in Solidworks. We used a 5-axis computer numerically controlled (CNC) router to shape the board from high-density foam; and are wrapping that board in carbon fibre; curing it; and then adding a bamboo layer which will act as a dampener, to soften the vibrations.”
“Before we apply the carbon fibre, we put in the fin boxes and the mounts for the threaded inserts, which are 3D printed on the Stratasys Fortus rapid prototyping (RP) machine. Stratasys and one of its UK distributors, Laser Lines Ltd, are kindly sponsoring the event by helping with the development of the 3D printed parts. With their help we are experimenting with a plastic called ABS and an ABS/ polycarbonate material for additional stiffness in the fins.”
He added: “I’ve researched in great depth how the big manufacturers make their boards. We’ve looked at what components are used and are adapting those processes. Fibre glass is slightly more flexible than carbon fibre, and arguably could provide better performance, but we use a lot of carbon fibre here, so we want to explore the benefits that this could bring. The bamboo will make it look stunning: a carbon and wood-colour finish. We’ve used similar techniques to commercial manufacturing, but have also introduced modern materials and manufacturing.”
Computational fluid dynamics testing
Kelvin says they are using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) testing to understand the best angle to insert the fins, in order to get the maximum thrust with the minimum drag. He says: “It’s quite a complex environment; as the air and water couple around the board. In all honesty, we are not going to be able to understand it all before we embark on the crossing. There is going to be an unknown element, but hopefully this will give us some ideas to make improvements for crossings in future years.”
The sea crossing, which Kelvin and Ross hope will become an annual event, has an added dimension: while they kitesurf across the channel, colleagues and students from UWTSD’s automotive engineering degree will be racing them in an electric hybrid vehicle, via the more traditional M4 and M5 route from Woolacombe to Swansea. The hybrid drivers’ objective is to perform the drive using the lowest energy consumption, and raise the profile of the work they are doing on sustainable vehicles. Predicted journey times are comparable, but what is unknown are the conditions on the day: it could be a tight finish.
Kelvin says: “We will have GPS tracking on us; so people can follow on the internet. It is great that we are raising the profile of local manufacturing and a range of our engineering output at the university within the same competition.”
They will also be followed by an experienced support crew on fully equipped rescue boats, as well as local sailors and have, in addition, three highly experienced kitesurfing team members: Marc Rowley, Oli Thorman and Sarah Rowley.
Kelvin thinks that this is the first time an engineering course has been set up with an emphasis on manufacturing elements for extreme sports. It reflects the explosion of interest in extreme sports, such as snowboarding, kitesurfing and power gliding and, according to Kelvin, is well placed in South Wales: “The number of carbon fibre composite manufacturers in Wales that focus on the leisure industry now exceeds those in automotive and aerospace. People automatically think of those two industries as the key users of those materials. But they are widely used in extreme sports, too.”
Ross says he is nervously excited, and very much looking forward to it, enjoying the impetus that is getting behind the crossing. He said:
“I hope other manufacturers will engage with it, and look at the processes and adaptations that we have gone through and hopefully some industrial links will come out of it.”
“There is a huge amount of engineering going into these projects. What we are looking at is redefining the manufacture of such boards through predictive methods, and design, rather than the traditional iterative style of manufacturing. We’re looking to improve the process.”
Companies are invited to sponsor the endeavour, and the aim is also to raise funds for the Wales Air Ambulance and the MVS. Find out more and keep up to date with The
Bristol Channel Kitesurf Crossing.
For more information on the Extreme Sports Engineering BEng and MEng course visit the
University of Wales Trinity Saint David (UWTSD) website.