fairfolio
Saved Projects

Effect of Foam Material Thickness on Peak Linear Acceleration and Impulse in Impact Testing

CSEF · 2026 Applied Mechanics (Senior Division)

Denver Freitas

Overview

This study investigated how material type and thickness affected peak acceleration during pendulum impacts. A 0.9 kg pendulum struck a block surrounded by different materials at varying thicknesses while acceleration was recorded. By measuring acceleration during controlled impact collision, this experiement evaluated how material properties affected force transmission, impulse, energy conversion, and peak acceleration during impact. Results showed that some materials reduced peak acceleration while others remained relatively constant as thickness increased. These findings suggest that nonlinear stiffening and material stiffness can influence impact deceleration and total impulse.

Competition history

  • CSEF 2026 Applied Mechanics (Senior Division) · Entry S-02-13

Related projects

Closest projects by meaning, across every fair and year in the corpus.

Browse more like this

Source: California Science & Engineering Fair public projects

Save projects to your library

Sign in with Google to keep track of projects you find interesting, organized into folders. An account also raises your daily allowance for “Has this been done?”, and lets you create a key for the MCP server with a much higher limit than anonymous use. Browsing stays public.

Continue with Google