Sunday 20 May 2007

Pole's Apart

The end of the measuring tape is from the end that went in to the securing end of the sleeve.

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Showing where the breaks are in relation to the actual pole sections:

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First break ("A") at 52cm from the end.

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And in section.

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Second break is 104.5cm from the end.

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And in section.

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5 comments:

Mark said...

Wow. That's nasty. If any good's come out of your pole disaster it's that I'm going to stick with my Akto's original set.

Anonymous said...

Sorry that this happened but at least you were in a location where you could easily retreat with no risk to your personal safety. I was looking at your experiment with interest because (weight apart) I'd agree that the Akto poles have long sections in relation to the packed tent size. But this reminds me of the tests that Alpkit did on their carbon fibe walking poles (see the colab on their site.) Carbon fibre doesn't bend like aluminium - it can take stress but fails suddenly. Let us know how you get on with the suppliers - do you intend to keep on trying with this or stick with the original poles?
Phil

John Hee said...

I wondered if the shortened pole lengths made the end to end section as a whole too rigid, due to the increased number of "solid" joints? (all assumptions!)

The break points definitely appear to be stress spots from your measurements.

AktoMan said...

Hi Phil,

Yes, I'd read about CF before, but thought that I'd give it a go and try it myself.
http://www.alpkit.com/carbonlite/NoThing ventured, nothing gained.

Duncan

AktoMan said...

Hi John,

I'm waiting to hear from the company to find out what they suggest.

I'd have thought that the opposite would have been true, and that having more ferrules (stiffened joints) would have strengthed the sections. Either way, the forces would have turned the pole into a cantilever beam, secured at one end of the tent, and having lateral force (wind) acting on it.

But it has been many years since I did any form of stress analysis, so will leave it to the engineers to ponder.

Duncan