Effects of Task Difficulty on Centre of Pressure Excursion and Its Inter-Trial Variability in Acrobatic Gymnastics Pyramid Performance

Despite the importance of balance in Acrobatic Gymnastic Pyramid performance, there is limited biomechanical analysis of balance during this activity. The aims of this study were to analyse the effect of pyramid difficulty on the centre of pressure (COP) excursion and its inter-trial variability, and determine which parameters had strongest relationship with performance. Forty-seven acrobatic gymnasts performed five trials of back and front pyramids and a third more difficult, handstand pyramid on a force platform. Pyramids were held for 7 seconds and surface area, range, mediolateral amplitude and anteroposterior amplitude of the CoP were examined to analyse balance. The pyramid scores were obtained from qualified judges to assess the performance. Results showed higher CoP excursions and inter-trial variability during the execution of the high difficulty pyramid. Higher judges' scores were associated with lower CoP excursions in all the pyramids regardless of the difficulty. Similarly, correlation between inter-trial variability and pyramid performance was observed, although these coefficients were lower than those reported for the relationship between CoP excursion and performance. These results suggested that CoP monitoring could help coaches and gymnasts to assess the pyramid instability more accurately.Universidad Pablo de Olavide de Sevilla. Departamento de Deporte e Informátic

Subcritical flow past a circular cylinder surrounded by a porous layer

A study of the flow at subcritical Re = 3900 around a circular cylinder, surrounded at some fixed small distance by a porous layer with a hydraulic resistance typical for that of textile materials, has been performed by means of direct numerical simulations. The flow in the space between the porous layer and the solid cylinder was found to be laminar and periodic, with a frequency locked to that of the vortex shedding in the wake behind the cylinder. Time averaged flow velocities underneath the porous material were in good agreement with experimental data from laser Doppler anemometry.Multi-Scale PhysicsApplied Science

Hydraulic permeability of ordered and disordered single-layer arrays of cylinders

The hydraulic permeability of single-layer fibrous media is studied through two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional Navier-Stokes based flow simulations. As simple representations of such materials, one-dimensional arrays of parallel cylinders as well as two-dimensional arrays of perpendicularly crossing cylinders were used. The distance between the cylinders was either constant (ordered layers) or variable (disordered layers). For both 1D and 2D ordered layers, we propose a geometrical scaling rule for the hydraulic permeability as a function of cylinder radius and solid volume fraction (porosity), which is a modification of a scaling rule previously reported by Clague and co-workers. The proposed modification is based on theoretical considerations and leads to significantly improved correspondence with simulation results. The hydraulic permeability of unstructured layers is found to be higher than that of structured layers of equal porosity for both 1D and 2D arrays. We propose a single parameter that can be easily determined experimentally to characterize the degree of disorder, as well as a generally valid correction factor in the proposed geometrical scaling rule to account for the influence of disorder on the hydraulic permeability.Multi-Scale PhysicsApplied Science