Optimal Design of a Golf Club using Functionally Graded Porosity

The current work portrays a new concept of designing and manufacturing golf club heads with functionally graded porosity (FGP) by means of electron beam melting® (EBM®). In light of the advancement of additive manufacturing (AM) technologies and the consequent wide spread applications in the aerospace, automotive, and biomedical industries, the current work discusses a new application in sport technologies; for example, in the golf industry. EBM® makes it possible to print the designed porosity within a golf club head, to reduce the weight and optimize performance. The focus is to design the golf club head with FGP to improve performance and reduce weight. The dynamic properties of porous materials are investigated theoretically. The porosity in the club head was analyzed numerically by simulating the impact between the club head and a steel ball in order to determine the coefficient of restitution (COR) of the club head. The simulation’s parameters are in compliance with the U.S Golf Association’s (USGA) test procedure for measuring COR.