Finite element analysis of impact damage response of composite motorcycle safety helmets

Kostopoulos, V.; Markopoulos, Y. P.; Giannopoulos, Georgios I.; Vlachos, D.E.

doi:10.1016/s1359-8368(01)00066-x

Cited by 84 publications

(47 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…This finding is consistent with those from previous protective surfacing (8,10) and motorcycle helmet studies (20)(21)(22)(23)(24) on head impacts. This difference is attributable to the dependence of HIC value on both the peak acceleration and the distribution of the acceleration-time trace, which make it more sensitive to variation than peak acceleration.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

Protective Performance of Plate-Cell Rubber Tiles against Childhood Head Injury on Playground Surfaces - A Finite Element Analysis

Chang

Huang

2007

JMMP

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Rubber tiles are commonly used in playgrounds as protective surfacing to reduce the incidence of head injuries in children caused by falling from equipment. This study developed a rubber tile model consisting of a surface layer of solid and a base layer of plate-cell and used it to investigate head injury protective performance. An explicit finite element method based on the experimental data was used to simulate head impact on the rubber tile. The peak acceleration and head injury criterion (HIC) were employed to assess the shock-absorbing capability of the tile. The results showed that compared to the peak acceleration, use of the HIC index provided a more conservative assessment of the shock absorption ability, and ultimately the protection against head injuries. This study supports the feasibility of using rubber tile with plate-cell construction to improve shock-absorbing capability. The plate-cell structure provided an excellent cushioning effect via a lower axial shear stiffness of the surface layer and lower transverse shearing stiffness of the core. The core's dimensions were an important parameter in determining the shearing stiffness. The analysis suggested that the cushioning effect would significantly reduce the peak force on the head from a fall and delay the occurrence of the peak value during impact, resulting in a marked reduction in the peak acceleration and HIC values of the head. Two plate-cell constructions with honeycomb and box-like cores were proposed and validated in this study. The better protective ability of the honeycomb core was attributed to its lower transverse shearing stiffness.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

Protective Performance of Plate-Cell Rubber Tiles against Childhood Head Injury on Playground Surfaces - A Finite Element Analysis

Chang

Huang

2007

JMMP

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“…A comparison, of compression tests on a complete shell with FEA of the same loading geometry, showed that the Young's modulus of the GRP in the Mavet helmet was relatively low. This is almost certainly true for other helmets, suggesting that the moduli used in [11] and [12] were probably too high. GRP fracture and delamination does not occur in the flat anvil impacts, so these phenomena were not modelled.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Glass fibre reinforced polyester resin (GRP) is used for many helmet shells, but its elastic properties depend on the processing conditions. Researchers often used GRP Young's moduli measured using flat test coupons, rather than values deduced from tests on helmet shells; Kostoupoulos et al [11] used an inplane Young's modulus of 19.7 GPa for a 2 mm thick prototype GRP shell. Aiello et al [12], who simulated direct impacts on a full-face Dainese helmet with a mixed-fibre composite shell, used an in-plane Young's modulus of 24 MPa at 50 °C.…”

Section: Article In Pressmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…FEA was then performed for the same loading geometries; a GRP Young's modulus E G = 8 GPa and Poisson's ratio 0.1 [27], with shell GRP shell helmets onto a 50 mm radius rigid hemisphere at 7.5 ms -1 [11] predicted a small region of delamination in the GRP; nevertheless 49% of the energy was stored elastically in the GRP compared with 8% dissipated by delamination. When GRP shell helmets are examined after BS 6658 test impacts on to flat anvils, no evidence of delamination is found.…”

Section: Helmet Materials Propertiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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FEA of oblique impact tests on a motorcycle helmet

Mills

Wilkes

Derler

et al. 2009

International Journal of Impact Engineering

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In accidents, motorcycle riders full-face helmets often make oblique impacts with road surfaces. Finite Element Analysis was used to predict the rotational and linear acceleration of a Hybrid II headform, representing a motorcyclist's head, in such impacts, considering the effects of friction at the head/helmet and helmet/road interfaces. Simulations of the oblique impact test in British Standard BS 6658 were validated by comparison with published data.This showed that COST 327 experimental data was largely determined by the friction coefficient (0.55) between the helmet shell and abrasive paper, and hardly affected by that between the head and helmet. Slip was predicted at the shell/paper interface throughout the impact, due to the high angular inertia of the helmet, and the normal force remaining below 3.5 kN. Simulations of more severe motorcycle helmet impacts explored the effects of impact site and direction, impact velocity components, helmet fit and the scalp. In these impacts, the higher velocity component normal to the road caused high frictional forces on the helmet shell, eventually causing it to roll on the road. The peak headform rotational accelerations, at some impact sites, were potentially injurious. The most effective method of reducing head rotational acceleration could be a reduction in the linear acceleration limit of the helmet standards.

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“…A study on the influence of mechanical characteristics of the brain tissue on head injury criteria using finite element analysis (FEA) shows that head impact criterion (HIC), a widely used head injury measure for dummies derived from the time history of an accelerometer mounted at the centre of gravity of a dummy's head, is insensitive to the type of material used to model the brain tissue [6], thus, in this sense, justifying the use of different models. Evaluations of head injuries using FEA have been performed in numerous studies [7][8][9], some of them using helmets too [10,11]. The main difference in this study is the use of more detailed models of helmet and head and a focus on the motorcycle crash-related impact conditions in order to model more realistic scenarios, as well as a different approach to analysing the results.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing motorcycle crash-related head injuries using finite element simulations

Toma¹,

Njilie²,

Ghajari³

et al. 2010

Int. j. simul. model.

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Motorcycle crash-related fatalities and injuries have a relatively increasing tendency compared to other vehicles. The new development of safety devices and technologies for prediction of their behaviour are therefore also increasingly important. Motorcycles have the least amount of protective devices amongst vehicles. A small disturbance in the motion of motorcycles can expose the riders to severe impacts leading to injuries especially in the appendicular part of the body, but the severest injury is usually to the head. Head injuries are the most common cause of death amongst motorcyclists (approximately 45 %). Thus, naturally, the main protective equipment preventing motorcyclists from fatal injuries is the helmet. In this study, detailed finite element models of helmet and human head are used to simulate and analyse the impacts on a protected and unprotected head in a scenario typical for motorcycle-related collisions.

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Finite element analysis of impact damage response of composite motorcycle safety helmets

Cited by 84 publications

References 7 publications

Protective Performance of Plate-Cell Rubber Tiles against Childhood Head Injury on Playground Surfaces - A Finite Element Analysis

Protective Performance of Plate-Cell Rubber Tiles against Childhood Head Injury on Playground Surfaces - A Finite Element Analysis

FEA of oblique impact tests on a motorcycle helmet

Assessing motorcycle crash-related head injuries using finite element simulations

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