The Protective Performance of Modern Motorcycle Helmets Under Oblique Impacts

Xiancheng Yu, Ingrid Logan, Itziar de Pedro Sarasola, Atulit Dasaratha, Mazdak Ghajari

Annals of Biomedical Engineering, 2022

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…

Cite as (BibTeX)

@article{yu-2022-the-protective-performance-of,
  title={The Protective Performance of Modern Motorcycle Helmets Under Oblique Impacts},
  author={Xiancheng Yu and Ingrid Logan and Itziar de Pedro Sarasola and Atulit Dasaratha and Mazdak Ghajari},
  journal={Annals of Biomedical Engineering},
  year={2022},
  doi={10.1007/s10439-022-02963-8}
}