Life Assessment of a Pre Cracked Cricket Bat

Abstract

Cricket is an interesting game played in many countries wherein a bat made of willow wood is used to strike a leather ball to score runs. This bat fails at a much faster rate in the presence of a crack when compared to a normal bat. In this study, an attempt is made to assess the life of a pre-cracked cricket bat. A crack is initiated in the weak spot region close to the bat blade edge. The experiments are carried out for defensive shots only by fixing up the bat handle for a ball speed of 130 km/h at the point of release. The generated force for this ball speed at the point of contact on the bat is calculated theoretically and applied on to the bat using an impact hammer on the crack zone. A piece of leather is used as a medium in between the impact hammer and bat. The data from experiments are used to assess life theoretically. The experimental and theoretical results show that the life of the bat is estimated to be 787 shots and 843 shots respectively. These results are validated by simulating in ANSYS V17. It was found that the remaining useful lives estimated by both methods are in good agreement with each other.