Biofidelity of motorcycle helmet criteria

Vander Vorst, M. J.; Chan, P. C.

Abstract

To protect motorcyclists in accidents, Section 218 of the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS) sets standards for motorcycle helmets based on the magnitude and duration of the acceleration of a vertically guided helmeted headform at impact. Worldwide, there are several other helmet standards. For example, the Economic Commission for Europe standard, ECE 22.4, limits both the Head Injury Criterion (HIC) and peak acceleration computed from a free falling helmeted headform; while the ANSI and Snell Memorial Foundation standards limit only the peak acceleration. Previous work established that the mechanical strain predicted by an anatomically based finite element model is a good biomechanical correlate to bare-headed, impact-induced, linear skull fracture. The purpose of this effort is to determine the biofidelity of motorcycle helmet standards using computed strain as the biomechanical basis. Preliminary analysis indicates that peak acceleration and SFC (the average acceleration over the HIC time interval) are biofidelic criteria to impact skull fracture for motorcycle helmets.

Links

URL: http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/pdf/bio/proceedings/2005_33/33-2.pdf

Cited Works (3)

Year	Entry
2003	Vander Vorst M, Stuhmiller J, Ho K, Yoganandan N, Pintar F. Statistically and biomechanically based criterion for impact-induced skull fracture. In: 47th Annual Proceedings, Association for the Advancement of Automotive Medicine (AAAM). September 22-24, 2003; Lisbon, Portugal.365-381.
1981	Hurt HH Jr, Ouellet JV, Thom DR. Motorcycle Accident Cause Factors and Identification of Countermeasures: Volume I: Technical Report. Washington, DC: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, U.S. Dept of Transportation; January 1981. NHTSA Technical Report DOT HS 805 862.
2004	Vander Vorst M, Chan P, Zhang J, Yoganandan N, Pintar F. A new biomechanically-based criterion for lateral skull fracture. In: 48th Annual Proceedings, Association for the Advancement of Automotive Medicine (AAAM). September 13-15, 2004; Key Biscayne, FL.181-195.

Cited By (1)

Year	Entry
2006	Rigby PH, Chan PC, Lu Z. Measurement of under-helmet force distribution on FMVSS 218 headform. In: Proceedings of the 34th International Workshop on Human Subjects for Biomechanical Research. 2006.25-40.