Design and Testing of Sports Helmets: Biomechanical and Practical Considerations

Newman, James A.

doi:10.1007/978-1-4939-1732-7_25

Cited by 5 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…Finally, it is observed that the sport-specific design trends in athletic helmets reflect a combination of historic/aesthetic design inertia and true sport-specific requirement differences (Newman, 2015). However, helmets may be viewed more generally as devices which mitigate the effect of head impacts on neural health.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Impact attenuation capabilities of football and lacrosse helmets

Breedlove

Bowman

et al. 2016

Journal of Biomechanics

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Although the National Operating Committee on Standards for Athletic Equipment (NOCSAE) standards are similar for football and lacrosse helmets, it remains unknown how helmets for each sport compare on drop tests. Due to the increased concern over head injury in sport and the rapid growth in lacrosse participation, it is useful to compare the performance of various football and lacrosse helmets. Therefore, the goal of this study was to document the impact attenuation properties of football and lacrosse helmets and to identify the relative performance between helmets for the two sports. Six models of football and six models of lacrosse helmets were tested using a drop tower at three prescribed velocities and six locations on the helmets. A repeated measures ANOVA was conducted to determine the effect of sport on Gadd Severity Index (GSI) scores and linear accelerations. The interaction between location and sport was significant at the low (F=7.68, P<.001, η=.025), medium (F=16.78, P<.001, η=.085), and high (F=16.67, P<.001, η=.093) velocities for GSI scores. When comparing peak acceleration results, we found a significant interaction between location and sport for the medium (F=5.57, P=.001, ω=.031) and high (F=6.4, P<.001, ω=.047) velocities. Features of football helmet design provide superior protection compared to lacrosse helmets. Further investigation of helmet design features across sports will yield insight into how design features influence helmet performance during laboratory testing.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Impact attenuation capabilities of football and lacrosse helmets

Breedlove

Bowman

et al. 2016

Journal of Biomechanics

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“…Due to numerous head and spinal injuries occurring in American Football, the NOCSAE was founded in 1969, and the first safety standards for helmets were established in 1973 [41][42][43]. Since then, helmet technology has improved rapidly [44]. According to Schneider et al [45], football helmets should be explicitly constructed based on an anatomic knowledge of the skull and brain to understand the mechanical principles involved in head injuries.…”

Section: Helmet Historymentioning

confidence: 99%

Design and Virtual Testing of American Football Helmets–A Review

Dymek

Ptak

Fernandes

2021

Arch Computat Methods Eng

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This paper aims to review the recent progress in the research carried out by scientists worldwide regarding American Footballers' head injuries and head protective equipment, focusing on the role of computation methods, mainly finite element method application to American Football helmet design and testing as well as head injury biomechanics. The helmet technology has been constantly improved, and it is driven by market competition, medical records, coaches and athletes' self-awareness. With finite element analysis and computational resources development, it is possible to develop more accurate brain models to recreate American Footballers' head impacts. This method seems to be an excellent simulation tool to verify the helmet's ability to absorb energy and enable the researchers to have an insight into head kinematics and tissue-level injuries. The work is focused on head injuries in American Football as the sport becomes more popular across the globe. Additionally, a reference to the development and newest technology is presented. The review's proposed approach gathers studies presented within the last decade regarding the coupling of finite element brain models with helmets in standardised or on-field conditions. The synthesis of the existing state of the art may enhance the researchers to continue investigating the athlete's trauma and improve the protective gear technology to minimise head injuries. The authors presented numerous studies regarding concussions and the newest findings from the last decade, including Finite Element Head models (FEHm) with American Football helmet simulations. All the studies were searched through Google Scholar, Scopus and ResearchGate databases.

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“…VN holds a unique advantage over EPS due to its ability to sustain several impacts without compromising its energy absorption capability [23,24]. Accordingly, VN is highly desirable for protective devices that must respond effectively to consecutive impact events, like in snow sports, ice hockey and American football [25]. These foamed materials are, however, limited in terms of their ability to dissipate energy under shear, which occurs under oblique loading conditions [10].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Optimisation of an elastomeric pre-buckled honeycomb helmet liner for advanced impact mitigation

Adams

Soe

Theobald

2023

Smart Mater. Struct.

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Advances in computational modelling now offer an efficient route to developing novel helmet liners that could exceed contemporary materials' performance. Furthermore, the rise of accessible additive manufacturing presents a viable route to achieving otherwise unobtainable material structures. This study leverages an established finite element-based approach to the optimisation of cellular structures for the loading conditions of a typical helmet impact. A novel elastomeric pre-buckled honeycomb structure is adopted and optimised, the performance of which is baselined relative to vinyl nitrile foam under direct and oblique loading conditions. Results demonstrate that a simplified optimisation strategy is scalable to represent the behaviour of a full helmet. Under oblique impact conditions, the optimised pre-buckled honeycomb liner exceeds the contemporary material performance when considering computed kinematic metrics head and rotational injury criterion, by up to 49.9% and 56.6%. Furthermore, when considering tissue-based severity metrics via finite element simulations of a human brain model, maximum principal strain and cumulative strain density measures are reduced by 14.9% and 66.7% when comparing the new material, to baseline.

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Design and Testing of Sports Helmets: Biomechanical and Practical Considerations

Cited by 5 publications

References 12 publications

Impact attenuation capabilities of football and lacrosse helmets

Impact attenuation capabilities of football and lacrosse helmets

Design and Virtual Testing of American Football Helmets–A Review

Optimisation of an elastomeric pre-buckled honeycomb helmet liner for advanced impact mitigation

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