Biomedical Engineering Graduate Program, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
Centre of Exercise and Sports Research, School of Medical and Health Sciences, Edith Cowan University, Joondalup, Perth, Western Australia, Australia.
PLoS One. 2018 May 10;13(5):e0196208. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0196208. eCollection 2018.
Compliant bamboo poles have long been used for load carriage in Asian cultures. Although this custom differs from Western conventions of rigid body attachments (e.g. backpack), potential benefits include reduced peak shoulder forces as well as metabolic transport cost savings. Evidence that carrying a flexible pole benefits locomotion remains mixed, perhaps in part because the properties of pole design (e.g. bamboo material, structural geometry, etc.) have largely been neglected. These properties influence vibrational forces and consequently, the energy required by the user to manage the oscillations. We collected authentic bamboo poles from northern Vietnam and characterized their design parameters. Four poles were extensively studied in the lab (load-deflection testing, resonance testing, and computed tomography scans of three-dimensional geometry), and 10 others were tested at a rural Vietnamese farm site (basic measures of form and resonance). A mass-spring-damper model was used to characterize a relationship between resonant frequency (which affects the energetics of the pole-carrier system) and pole properties concerning stiffness, damping, etc. Model predictions of resonant frequencies agreed well with empirical data. Although measured properties suggest the poles are not optimally designed to reduce peak oscillation forces, resonant frequencies are within range of a typical human walking cadence, and this is likely to have a consequence on locomotion energetics.
顺应式竹杖在亚洲文化中早已被用于负重。虽然这种习惯与西方的刚性身体附件（如背包）不同，但潜在的好处包括减少肩部峰值力和代谢运输成本的节省。携带灵活的杆子是否有利于运动的证据仍然存在分歧，部分原因可能是杆子设计的特性（例如竹材、结构几何形状等）在很大程度上被忽视了。这些特性影响振动力量，从而影响用户管理振荡所需的能量。我们从越南北部收集了正宗的竹杖，并对其设计参数进行了描述。其中四根竹杖在实验室中进行了广泛研究（负载-变形测试、共振测试和三维几何的计算机断层扫描），另外十根在越南农村农场进行了测试（基本的形态和共振测量）。使用质量-弹簧-阻尼器模型来描述共振频率（这会影响杆-载体系统的能量）与杆的刚度、阻尼等特性之间的关系。共振频率的模型预测与经验数据吻合较好。尽管测量得到的特性表明这些杆子在设计上并不是为了减少峰值振荡力，但共振频率在典型人类行走步频的范围内，这可能对运动能量学产生影响。
