The protective performance of modern motorcycle helmets under oblique impacts
File(s)
Published version
Author(s)
Yu, Xiancheng
Logan, Ingrid
Sarasola, Itziar de Pedro
Dasaratha, Atulit
Ghajari, Mazdak
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Motorcyclists are at high risk of head injuries, including skull fractures, focal brain injuries, intracranial bleeding and diffuse brain injuries. New helmet technologies have been developed to mitigate head injuries in motorcycle collisions, but there is limited information on their performance under commonly occurring oblique impacts. We used an oblique impact method to assess the performance of seven modern motorcycle helmets at five impact locations. Four helmets were fitted with rotational management technologies: a low friction layer (MIPS), three-layer liner system (Flex) and dampers-connected liner system (ODS). Helmets were dropped onto a 45° anvil at 8 m/s at five locations. We determined peak translational and rotational accelerations (PTA and PRA), peak rotational velocity (PRV) and brain injury criteria (BrIC). In addition, we used a human head finite element model to predict strain distribution across the brain and in corpus callosum and sulci. We found that the impact location affected the injury metrics and brain strain, but this effect was not consistent. The rear impact produced lowest PTAs but highest PRAs. This impact produced highest strain in corpus callosum. The front impact produced the highest PRV and BrIC. The side impact produced the lowest PRV, BrIC and strain across the brain, sulci and corpus callosum. Among helmet technologies, MIPS reduced all injury metrics and brain strain compared with conventional helmets. Flex however was effective in reducing PRA only and ODS was not effective in reducing any injury metrics in comparison with conventional helmets. This study shows the importance of using different impact locations and injury metrics when assessing head protection effects of helmets. It also provides new data on the performance of modern motorcycle helmets. These results can help with improving helmet design and standard and rating test methods.
Date Issued
2022-11-01
Date Acceptance
2022-04-04
Citation
Annals of Biomedical Engineering, 2022, 50, pp.1674-1688
ISSN
0090-6964
Publisher
Springer
Start Page
1674
End Page
1688
Journal / Book Title
Annals of Biomedical Engineering
Volume
50
Copyright Statement
© The Author(s) 2022. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
License URL
Sponsor
Innovate UK
Identifier
http://gateway.webofknowledge.com/gateway/Gateway.cgi?GWVersion=2&SrcApp=PARTNER_APP&SrcAuth=LinksAMR&KeyUT=WOS:000782341000001&DestLinkType=FullRecord&DestApp=ALL_WOS&UsrCustomerID=1ba7043ffcc86c417c072aa74d649202
Grant Number
57460
Subjects
Science & Technology
Technology
Engineering, Biomedical
Engineering
Motorcycle helmet
Oblique impact
Brain injury
Head injury
Rotational acceleration
TRAUMATIC BRAIN-INJURY
INTRACRANIAL-PRESSURE
AXONAL INJURY
ACCELERATION
HEAD
LOCATION
DAMAGE
BODY
Publication Status
Published
Date Publish Online
2022-04-13