IV. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
Results for the seven balls tested are given in Figs. 2–4,
and further details are given in Table I. The force wave
forms are all of a similar general form, being an approximate
half-sine wave form, but asymmetrical in time. For most of
the balls, the maximum force is recorded at a time close to
0.5t, where t is the duration of the impact, indicating that the
experimental compression and expansion phases are of approximately
equal duration. However, the impulse during the compression is larger than the impulse during the expansion,
with the result that the ball rebounds at a speed less than the
incident speed. The plasticene ball did not bounce and remained
permanently deformed after the collision. All of the
hysteresis curves have a finite area, indicating that all collisions
were inelastic. The golf and superballs have an approximately
linear compression phase, with F}y, and a nonlinear
expansion phase.
The y displacement wave forms are more closely sinusoidal
than the force wave forms, at least during the compression
phase. In all cases it was found that the ball rebounds
in a compressed state since y remains finite at the end
of the impact. This was confirmed for the tennis and superballs
by aligning the beam L2 , as shown in Fig. 1, so that it
grazed the top of the ball when the ball was at rest on the Fig. 2. F and y vs time for six different balls, together with the corresponding
F vs y dynamic hysteresis curves, where y is the displacement of the
center of mass. The ball speeds are listed in Table I.Fig. 3. The force wave form ~a!, and the laser beam signals ~b!, ~c!, ~d! for
a tennis ball when the lower beam L2 just grazes the top of the ball, as
shown in Fig. 1. L2 is unblocked during the impact and for 0.4 ms after the
impact. Trace ~b! is an expanded version of trace ~d!.piezo. The results for the tennis ball are shown in Fig. 3,
where it can be seen that the beam is blocked just prior to the
impact, it is unblocked during the impact, and remains unblocked
for about 0.5 ms after the impact. The spatial resolution
was not sufficient to observe this effect with the other
balls, since the ball compression was too small.
A totally unexpected result was obtained with the silly
putty ball. Silly putty has the property that it stretches easily
when stretched slowly, it breaks when stretched quickly and
bounces when dropped on a surface. When the silly putty
ball was dropped on the piezo, it was discovered, with some
initial astonishment, that the piezo generated a negative output
signal commencing about 30 ms before the ball made
contact with the piezo, as shown in Fig. 4. No other ball had
this effect, and the effect was observed only with a freshly
prepared silly putty ball, created by stretching the putty and
rolling it into a ball. The effect was traced to electrostatic
charging of the ball to about 1 kV when it was stretched. The
effect was simulated by charging a plastic rod and moving it
toward or away from the piezo. The capacitance between the
ball and the piezo was only a few pF, but this was sufficient Fig. 4. The force wave form observed with a silly putty ball, and the L1
laser beam signal observed when L1 is located 11 mm above the piezo
surface. The ball had a mass of 12.9 gm and a diameter of 29 mm. The ball
blocks the beam 5 ms before it hits the piezo and unblocks the beam 7 ms
after it leaves the surface.Fig. 5. Static hysteresis curves for four different balls showing the applied
force F versus the compression, x, when the ball is compressed and then
decompressed between parallel metal plates.to generate a voltage of about 0.2 V across the piezo. The
ball was able to hold its charge for about 20 min, despite
repeated handling and dropping of the ball.
V. COMPARISON OF STATIC AND DYNAMIC
HYSTERESIS CURVES
Four of the balls were measured under static load conditions
using commercial test equipment in the Faculty of Engineering
at Sydney University. The results are shown in Fig.
5. Each ball was compressed between parallel steel plates at
a uniform rate over a period of one minute, held at this
compression for one minute and then allowed to expand at a
uniform rate, over a period of one minute, back to its original
shape. The break in the curve at maximum compression is
due to relaxation of internal stress in the ball during the one
minute pause between the compression and expansion
cycles. The static and dynamic hysteresis curves cannot be
compared directly since ~a! the dynamic curve is plotted as a
function of the y displacement of the center of mass, and the
static curve is plotted as a function of the ball compression,
x; and ~b! both sides of the ball were compressed equally in
the static test, whereas only the contact side of the ball is
compressed in a dynamic bounce. If it is assumed that y
5x/2 for a static compression and that y5x for a dynamic
compression then the dynamic and static curves yield similar
values for the effective spring constant k5F/y at maximum
compression. Alternatively, the dynamic value of F/x at
maximum compression is about twice that of the static value.
The area enclosed by a static hysteresis curve is less than
that of the corresponding dynamic curve for the same compression.
This is particularly evident for the superball, where
the energy loss is almost negligible during a static compression
and expansion. The effect is less pronounced for a baseball
since the static and dynamic hysteresis losses are both
relatively large. The superball tested did not bounce particularly
well, a result that could possibly be attributed to microscopic
cracks in the ball. Old superballs, with visible cracks in their surface, bounce even worse. The dynamic tennis ball
results are unusual in that the ball is much stiffer during the
initial impact than at later times, resulting in a pronounced
kink in the force wave form and in the dynamic hysteresis
curve. The kink was also observed with other tennis balls,
old and new, pressurized and unpressurized.
Brody8 has also measured the static hysteresis curve for a
tennis ball, using a hemispherical cap to avoid static compression
of the upper surface. His results are qualitatively
similar to those shown in Fig. 5~a! and indicate that the ball
tested by Brody was slightly stiffer and probably newer. The
tennis ball used throughout this experiment was an old, relatively
soft ball. The static hysteresis curve shown by Brody,
as well as the static curve shown in Fig. 5~a!, both enclose an
area that is only about 50% of the actual energy loss when a
tennis ball bounces off a rigid surface. The dynamic curves
in Fig. 3 account for 100% of the energy loss since the y
displacement has been calibrated from measurements of v1
and v2 . Part of the discrepancy between the actual loss and
the loss estimated from the static curves can be attributed to
the increased initial stiffness of the ball during an actual
bounce. Part of the discrepancy is also due to losses in the
cloth cover. It is known that the cloth cover on a tennis ball
contributes significantly to the energy loss, since a rubber
ball without a cloth cover bounces better than one with a
cloth cover. The effect of the cloth would not be apparent in
a static compression test if the cloth recovers elastically from
a compression during the test, but not during the short period
of the impact. A similar relaxation effect is commonly observed
with paper, since paper unfolds very slowly after
bending or folding.
The increased stiffness of rubber for a high-speed compression
can be modeled approximately by the relation
m d2y/dt252ky2g dy/dt, where k is the effective spring
constant and g dy/dt is a velocity-dependent force term related
to the viscosity of the rubber.7,10 Such a model results
in a hysteresis curve of finite area since the model equation
describes damped harmonic motion. The hysteresis curve in
this case commences with y50 and F52gv1 at t50. The
model hysteresis curve bears a resemblance to the tennis ball
data, for an appropriate choice of g, but it does not give a
good fit and is not relevant to any of the other balls. There is
no evidence of any velocity-dependent force acting on any of
the other balls, since F50 at t50 for all of the balls. Consequently,
the energy loss in all cases appears to be due to a
time-dependent relaxation of the internal stresses in the ball.
Such an effect is referred to simply as an ‘‘elastic aftereffect’’
in the rheology literature.10 The effect is complicated
by the fact that a spectrum of different time constants is
usually required to describe the relaxation. In the case of the
steel ball, losses in the ceramic piezo and the brass rod may
account for almost all of the energy loss.
VI. BALL VIBRATIONS
An estimate of the losses due to vibrations induced in the
tennis ball was obtained by gluing a small (4mm34mm!
piezoelectric ceramic element, of thickness 0.3 mm, onto a
tennis ball and measuring the induced voltage by means of
light wires soldered onto the element. Results are shown in
Fig. 6 for a case where the ball was dropped from a height of
10 cm onto the 50 mm diam piezo. When the small piezo
element is located near the bottom of the ball, the force wave
form observed is similar to that observed with the large piezo Fig. 6. Results for a tennis ball showing ~a! the output of the 50 mm diam
piezo, ~b! the output of a small piezo ~at 50 mV/div! mounted on the ball at
a point 30° away from the contact point, and ~c! the output of the small
piezo ~at 10 mV/div! mounted on the top of the ball, i.e., at a point 180°
away from the contact point.element, but there is a delay of about 0.4 ms between the two
wave forms. The pulse decreases in amplitude and changes
shape as the location of the element is rotated away from the
bottom of the ball toward the top of the ball. The top of the
ball is only slightly effected by the compression and expansion
of the bottom of the ball, but there is a small-amplitude