Role of materials & design on performance of baseball bats

Baseball bat safety has become an increasing area of interest with more than 19 million people in the United States alone participating in this sport. An increase in injuries resulting from bat injuries has brought the performance of the bats into question. A review of several studies focusing on the effects of the material properties of various baseball bats designs were examined. From this review it is evident that player and spectator safety greatly rely on proper baseball bat design. There was a 30% reduction in the Multi-Piece Failures (MPF) of wooden bats once the requirement of a Slope of Grain (SOG) of 1:20 or 3 degrees was introduced in 2009. Further research into the implications of material and design can only help increase the safety to players and spectators.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Science in Materials Science and Engineering - (M.S.)

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Committee for the Interdisciplinary Program in Materials Science and Engineering

Year

2013

Author dc:creator

• Benson-Worth, Kim

Contributors dc:contributor

• N. M. Ravindra
• Ken Keunhyuk Ahn
• Anthony Fiory

• Baseball bat safety
• Multi-piece failures
• Slope of grain
• Materials Science and Engineering

Repository record dc:identifier

https://digitalcommons.njit.edu/theses/178

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:digitalcommons.njit.edu:theses-1177