Date of Award

5-2025

Document Type

Thesis

Department

Mechanical Engineering

Committee Chair/Advisor

Dr. Ardalan Vahidi

Abstract

The overarching goal of this research project was to investigate the relationship between a participant's maximum power (Watts) at a given cadence (RPM) on a specific fatigue level. Before conducting any experiments, we hypothesized that maximum power and cadence would decay linearly with fatigue. To do this, six days of testing for each of 4 human subjects were split across two phases. The first 4 days were devoted to Phase one, which focuses on determining the physical abilities of each unique participant and finding metabolic constants such as Critical Power and Anaerobic Work Capacity. Phase two then tests maximal power at various fatigue levels. This protocol was repeated twice to verify the results. Finally, an overarching goal of this research was to remove the human mind and its unconscious pacing. The mind is a beautiful thing, but when it comes to participant-based athletic research, it is an uncontrollable variable. The mind unconsciously limits the body to ensure some energy is always left. This limit causes a significant issue when the goal is to analyze the maximal performance. In an all-out exercise, for instance, a participant may unconsciously save energy at first, which will cause them to finish with unexpended reserves. To limit mental influence, a constant power method was used to determine critical power and anaerobic work capacity.

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