Carbon arrows damp their own vibration very little and reach the target still oscillating
4 studies
The summary today
The shaft's own damping has been measured twice, in two different laboratories, and both times it is small. With laser vibrometry on ProTour shafts hung from elastic cords, the loss factor stays below 0.012 across the first eight bending modes, up to about 2.8 kilohertz; driving a carbon arrow at resonance at 84.8 hertz gives a quality factor of 400, which means a damping time of about one and a half seconds, longer than the flight at competition distances. That the arrow reaches the target still vibrating is a deduction, and the author who makes it says so: the calculation leaves out damping by the air, which nobody has measured. A review adds that in high frame rate video the lateral flexing, around 80 to 90 hertz, shrinks but stays significant all the way to the target, without giving figures, and automatic image analysis sees an X10 shaft shot by a robot flexing at about 75 hertz in free flight, over the stretch covered by the cameras. How much vibration is really left on arrival, and whether it matters for the point of impact, has not been measured.
Also phrased as: "the arrow vibrates all the way to the target"; "damping of carbon arrows"; "the arrow stops flexing after a few metres"; "arrow vibration in flight"; "the arrow arrives still bending"
In practice
It is taken for granted that the arrow stops flexing a few metres out of the bow, and flexing is only looked at on exit, with paper tuning or bare shafts.
Evidence
-
2012
For Equipment tests Published later
Easton ProTour 380, 420 and 470 shafts, carbon over an aluminium core, three specimens per type, hung from elastic cords at the first-mode nodes and set vibrating without contact by a loudspeaker; Polytec PSV-400 laser vibrometer in three-dimensional configuration. The measured modal loss factor stays below 0.012 in all eight bending modes, from about 78 Hz to about 2.8 kHz in the ProTour 420 (0.008 in the first mode). It measures the shaft's own damping on the bench, not how much survives in flight.
Modelling the three-dimensional vibration of composite archery arrows under free–free boundary conditions · Marianne Rieckmann, James L Park, John Codrington, Ben Cazzolato
-
2015
For Equipment tests Published later
A 20.6 g carbon arrow, supported at its nodes and set vibrating by a magnet at the point: resonance at 84.8 Hz and a quality factor of 400 plus or minus 30, giving a damping time of about 1.5 s to fall to 0.37 of the initial amplitude. The author notes that this is longer than the flight in most target archery, so most of the initial oscillation would remain on impact, if aerodynamic damping can be neglected; the latter is not measured.
Applications of Physics to Archery · H. O. Meyer
-
2019
For Review Published later
A narrative review of outdoor target archery: arrows flex laterally at about 80 to 90 Hz and keep a flexing amplitude that shrinks but stays significant along the path to the target, as is often seen in high frame rate video; the rate at which the amplitude falls was reproduced well by the author's model. No figures on the amplitude on arrival.
The impact of the atmosphere on target archery · James L Park
-
2022
Context Equipment tests Published later
X10 shafts 0.756 m long shot by a robot with a competition bow, filmed at 3,000 frames per second and analysed automatically: the apparent length of the shaft comes out up to about 2 cm shorter and varies regularly, with half a period every 20 frames or so, that is a flex of around 75 Hz; average of 35 shots. The authors note that an angle of attack in the horizontal plane may also play a part. Measured over the filmed stretch, not on arrival.
Automatic image analysis of an archery arrow in free flight using high-speed video cameras · Riku Murakami, Hiroya Mamori, Takeshi Miyazaki, Naoya Takahashi
Status history
- 2012 Reported The first measurement of the damping finds it minimal. With laser vibrometry on ProTour shafts in three sizes, carbon over an aluminium core, three specimens per type, hung from elastic cords and set vibrating by a loudspeaker, the loss factor stays below 0.012 in all eight bending modes measured, up to about 2.8 kilohertz, and the first mode sits around 78 hertz: once set oscillating, the shaft loses little energy. It is a bench test, with no flight and no comparison with aluminium or wood, and a single study: reported.
- 2015 Reported A second measurement, in an independent laboratory, gives the figure that matters: a carbon arrow driven at resonance at 84.8 hertz has a quality factor of 400, so the oscillation takes about one and a half seconds to fall to just over a third of its initial amplitude, longer than the flight time in most target archery. The author concludes that most of the initial oscillation is still there on impact, but only if damping by the air can be neglected, and that is not measured. The two measurements agree on the shaft's own damping; the arrival at the target is still a calculation, so the status does not rise.
- 2019 Reported A review brings in the observation from flight: arrows flex laterally at about 80 to 90 hertz and keep an amplitude that shrinks but stays significant over the whole path to the target, as is often seen in high frame rate video, and its author's calculation reproduced the rate at which the amplitude falls. It points the claim's way, but it is a review and does not report the measurements: the status stays.
- 2022 Reported Automatic analysis of high-speed footage sees the flexing in free flight on X10 shafts shot by a robot with a competition bow: the apparent length of the shaft shortens by up to about 2 centimetres in a regular pattern, half a period every 20 frames or so at 3,000 per second, about 75 hertz, averaged over 35 shots. It confirms that the arrow flies while flexing, but over the stretch covered by the cameras, not on arrival: the status does not change.
Related
Related articles
- Fishtailing and porpoising: what arrow flight saysDoes your arrow wag sideways or wave up and down? What causes fishtailing and porpoising, which to fix first, and how to confirm it with a bare shaft test.
- What a bow is made of: what the materials of limbs, riser, string and arrows changeWood, horn, carbon, glass fibre: what bench tests on limbs, risers, strings and arrows have measured, and how much of it reaches the archer's hand.
- The archer's paradox: the physics of the flexing arrowAt full draw the arrow points to one side and still reaches the centre: how it flexes and clears the riser in the first twenty milliseconds, and how spine matches it to the bow.
Research lines
Cite
Campagna, M. (2026). Carbon arrows damp their own vibration very little and reach the target still oscillating (Version 1). In Evidence Registry. Retrieved 16 October 2026, from https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/equipment/carbon-arrow-vibration-reaches-target
@misc{campagna2026_oscillazionesmorzamentolento,
author = {Campagna, Matteo},
title = {Carbon arrows damp their own vibration very little and reach the target still oscillating},
year = {2026},
howpublished = {Evidence Registry, matteocampagna.com},
url = {https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/equipment/carbon-arrow-vibration-reaches-target},
note = {Version 1; accessed 2026-10-16}
}
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