The design and development of aquatic exercise shoe flaps

A foam structure that is attached to the bottom of a shoe worn while exercising in the water was designed, developed, and prototyped. The structure freely bends downward so as to provide little resistance when the foot is raised, but is resistant to bending upward when the foot is pressed down, thereby increasing resistance and enhancing the in-water exercise effect. The structure is called AquaFlaps. Several sketch models were made in the development of the idea leading to several foam prototypes created using the water jet. Testing of these models and prototypes yielded useful data which helped towards the final design. Testing also demonstrated that the product achieves the desired results. A provisional patent was filed.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Mechanical Engineering.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2005

Author dc:creator

• McKenney, Kyle S. (Kyle Scott)

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Alexander H. Slocum.

• Mechanical Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/32955

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/32955