Improving rowing performance by adjusting oar blade size and angle

W C A M van Nieuwburg; B J J van Spreuwel; M T K Tran; M D Yang; A Greidanus; G Mulder; M J Tummers; J Westerweel; W Suijker; R van Wijk

doi:10.3389/fspor.2023.1109494

Improving rowing performance by adjusting oar blade size and angle

Front Sports Act Living. 2023 Mar 9:5:1109494. doi: 10.3389/fspor.2023.1109494. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Laboratory for Aero & Hydrodynamics, Delft University of Technology, Delft, Netherlands.
² Maritime Research Institute Netherlands (MARIN), Wageningen, Netherlands.

Abstract

The principal aim of the work presented here is to investigate and demonstrate that a forward tilted rowing blade would result in a more efficient and effective motion of the blade through the water that would result in a higher boat speed when an equal input power is provided. A 1:5 scaled rowing boat is used to determine the performance of rowing blades with different sizes and blade angles. This is used to validate the results of a previous study where the optimal blade angle of 15 $^{\circ}$ with respect to the oar shaft was determined ( 1). The input power and speed of the rowing boat can be compared between original and modified oar blades. Measurements in a towing tank demonstrate that a modified rowing blade result in faster rowing by 0.4% at the same input power. Maintaining the same stroke rate, the improvement of the blade efficiency is compensated by using a 4-6% increased blade area to yield the same input power.

Keywords: efficiency; optimisation; performance; robot; rowing blade.

Grants and funding

AG is financially supported by the ZonMw implementation project “HyProRow” and the “Stichting Bijlboegfonds.” JW is supported by the ERC grant 884778 “Impulsive Flows.”