Bowling: Converting a 7-10 split Using SOLIDWORKS Simulation

Throwing a heavy ball down an alley to knock some pins over – pretty fun and pretty simple game, right?

We’ll, not exactly…It is MUCH more complicated that I originally thought, especially after I caught up with Aaron Koch of Brunswick Bowling at SOLIDWORKS World, who designs just about everything used in the bowling industry. Aaron explained that bowling balls are much more complicated than one would think. I assumed bowling balls were filled with some solid plastic, but that’s not at all the case.

I challenged several users, such as Aaron, at SOLIDWORKS World to come up with their toughest questions they would like answered by the SOLIDWORKS technical experts. And, just so you know, we have a LOT of really smart customers with some really interesting problems to solve…AND we have many experts here at SOLIDWORKS who can answer those tough questions. By the way, I’m not here to answer the tough questions, just bring these two groups together.

So, to answer Aaron’s question: “How can I study and simulate a bowling ball as it is traveling down the alley?” (Aaron actually has more detail than that, which you can see in the video). I proposed this question to our own Omar Zohni, PhD, one of our Simulation experts, and let’s say that the Simulation Dude abides.

Watch this video to hear Aaron’s question, and Omar explaining how to simulate friction of the bowling ball using different parameters within SOLIDWORKS Simulation.