Present and future performance levels of head injury protection for motorcycle helmets:​ an attempt to search for better impact energy absorption property of helmets

Mitsuishi, H.; Ono, K.; Nishimoto, T.; Nakamura, N.

Affiliations

¹Japan Automobile Research Institute, Inc., 2530 Karima, Tsukuba City, Ibaraki Pref., Japan 305

²The Jikei University School of Medicine, 3-25-8 Nishi-shinbashi, Minato-ku, Tokyo, Japan

Abstract

In an attempt to observe the impact absorption of current helmets, this study was conducted to test actual helmet characteristics and to consider the requirements and potential for improving head protection. For the helmet characteristics tests, three types of helmets were placed on the head of the Hybrid III Dummy which was dropped from certain heights. The parameters used included head acceleration, absorbed energy and head injury criteria (HIC), in addition to the shape of the objects struck (two variations) and impact velocity (four variations).

The potential for increasing head protection was tested by preparing and drop-testing three types of helmets—Base-line, Type-1 and Type-2 were drop tested with some combination of shell materials (FRP and Aluminum), thickness and densities of styrene-foam liners. The results indicated different impact levels in terms of HIC, according to the drop test conditions among various helmets standards applied: roughly 750‒4,000 (JIS T-8133, ECE-R.22, SNELL M90). On the other hand, helmets designed for each standards used in this study showed similar impact energy absorption characteristics. The results show that there is a possibility to improve the impact absorption characteristics of current helmets by selecting more appropriate helmet materials.

Cited Works (4)

Year	Entry
1984	Otte D, Jessl P, Suren EG. Impact points and resultant injuries to the head of motor-cyclists involved in accidents, with and without crash helmets. In: Proceedings of the 1984 International IRCOBI Conference on the Biomechanics of Impact. September 4-6, 1984; Delft, The Netherlands.47-64.
1993	Beusenberg MC, Happee R. An experimental evaluation of crash helmet design and effectiveness in standard impact tests. In: Proceedings of the 1993 International IRCOBI Conference on the Biomechanics of Impact. September 8-10, 1993; Eindhoven, The Netherlands.307-323.
1993	Zellmer H. Investigation of the performance of motorcycle helmets under impact conditions. In: Proceedings of the 37th Stapp Car Crash Conference. November 7-8, 1993; San Antonio, TX. Warrendale, PA: Society of Automotive Engineers:59-68. SAE 933113.
1989	Hopes PD, Chinn BP. Helmets: a new look at design and possible protection. In: Proceedings of the 1989 International IRCOBI Conference on the Biomechanics of Impact. September 13-15, 1989; Stockholm, Sweden.39-54.

Cited By (4)

Year	Entry
2006	DeMarco AL, Chimich DD, Gardiner JC, Nightingale RW, Siegmund GP. Motorcycle helmet impact response: comparison of helmet type and impact severity. In: Proceedings of the 34th International Workshop on Human Subjects for Biomechanical Research. 2006.15-24.
2007	DeMarco AL, Gardiner JC, Wilkinson CC, Hassan EA, Siegmund GP. Predicting motorcycle helmet impact severity from residual crush damage. In: Proceedings of the 35th International Workshop on Human Subjects for Biomechanical Research. 2007.47-56.
2012	DeMarco AL, Siegmund GP. Motorcycle helmet impact behavior depends on impact surface shape. In: Proceedings of the 40th International Workshop on Human Subjects for Biomechanical Research. 2012.
2010	DeMarco AL, Chimich DD, Gardiner JC, Nightingale RW, Siegmund GP. The impactresponse of motorcyclehelmets at differentimpactseverities. Accid Anal Prev. November 2010;42(6):1778-1784.