The influence of centric and non‐centric impacts to American football helmets on the correlation between commonly used metrics in brain injury research

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Post, Andrew¹; Oeur, Anna¹; Hoshizaki, Blaine¹; Gilchrist, Michael D.^1,2

The influence of centric and non‐centric impacts to American football helmets on the correlation between commonly used metrics in brain injury research

Proceedings of the 2012 International IRCOBI Conference on the Biomechanics of Injury

Affiliations

¹Human Kinetics Department, University of Ottawa

²School of Mechanical & Materials Engineering, University College Dublin, Ireland
Abstract and keywords

Concussion has become recognized as an injury which can be a source of long term neurological damage. This has led to research into which metrics may be more appropriate to define risk of injury. Some researchers support the use of linear acceleration as a metric for concussion, while others suggest the use of linear and rotational acceleration as well as brain deformation metrics. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships between these metrics using a centric and non‐centric impact protocol. A linear impactor was used to impact a Hybrid III headform fitted with different models of American football helmet using a centric and non‐centric protocol. The dynamic response was then used as input to the FE model for analysis of brain deformations. The results showed that linear acceleration was correlated to rotational acceleration and brain deformation for centric conditions, but under non‐centric conditions it was not. These results indicate that the type of methodology used will influence the relationship between the variables used to assign risk of concussion. These results also support the use of a centric/non‐centric protocol and measurement of rotational acceleration and brain deformation when it comes to the development of helmet technologies.

Keywords: American football, Brain injury, Concussion, Impact biomechanics
Links

URL: http://www.ircobi.org/downloads/irc12/pdf_files/52.pdf

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Cited By (6)

Year	Entry
2013	Kendall M, Post A, Zanetti K, Hoshizaki TB, Gilchrist MD. Comparison of dynamic versus static head impact reconstruction methodology by means of dynamic impact response and brain deformation metrics. In: Proceedings of the 2013 International IRCOBI Conference on the Biomechanics of Injury. September 11-13, 2013; Gothenburg, Sweden.536-546.
2015	Clark JM, Post A, Hoshizaki TB, Gilchrist MD. Determining the relationship between linear and rotational acceleration and MPS for different magnitudes of classified brain injury risk in ice hockey. In: Proceedings of the 2015 International IRCOBI Conference on the Biomechanics of Injury. September 9-11, 2015; Lyon, France.168-179.
2016	Clark JM, Post A, Hoshizaki TB, Gilchrist MD. The association among injury metrics for different events in ice hockey goaltender impacts. In: Proceedings of the 2016 International IRCOBI Conference on the Biomechanics of Injury. September 14-16, 2016; Malaga, Spain.205-216.
2020	Fanton M. Effect of Cervical Spine and Helmet Properties on Traumatic Brain Injury [PhD thesis]. Stanford University; July 2020.
2017	Stuart CA. Snow Sport Head Injury: Characterization of Clinical Presentation and Design of a Relevant Head Impact Apparatus [Master's thesis]. Vancouver, BC: University of British Columbia; April 2017.
2018	Taylor K. The Use of Decoupling Structures in Helmet Liners to Reduce Maximum Principal Brain Tissue Strain for Head Impacts [PhD thesis]. University of Ottawa; 2018.