| Presently, braiding is not a popular method used in the production of golf shafts. The objective of this thesis is to design a golf shaft using braided lamina that is comparable in terms of mass, deflection-force and angle of twist to commercially available composite and steel shafts.;Castigliano's Theorem was used to calculate the deflection-force and angle of twist of the design shaft assuming small deflections. Geometric calculations show this condition was verified. The mass of the design shaft was calculated based on the geometry and density of the shaft and its constituent materials.;Design golf shafts were comprised of both braided and unidirectional layers and compared to commercially available composite and steel shafts. Two shafts with a deflection-force of 11.47 N and 13.09 N, an angle of twist of 2.81° and 2.39° and mass of 67.8 g and 87.7 g, respectively, were designed using lamina with a 70% fibre volume fraction. These results are comparable to both commercial composite and steel shafts.;Lastly, a preliminary investigation was conducted to evaluate the use of foam materials as an internal solid core to provide additional rigidity without adding significant mass. From the materials evaluated, the maximum improvement of 14.9% and 8.19% in deflection-force and twist, respectively, is offset by a minimum mass increase of 17.8%.;To achieve this, a model for a 2D conical braided composite was developed. The goals for the model were to: (1) calculate/maintain a minimum 95% cover factor and (2) predict the corresponding elastic constants. The model was validated by comparison with previous work. |
