Computer methods in biomechanics and biomedical engineering
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Comput Methods Biomech Biomed Engin · Jan 2014
Towards reducing impact-induced brain injury: lessons from a computational study of army and football helmet pads.
We use computational simulations to compare the impact response of different football and U. S. Army helmet pad materials. ⋯ We conduct sensitivity studies exploring the effects of pad composition, geometry and material stiffness. We find that (1) the football pad materials do not outperform the currently used military pad material in militarily relevant impact scenarios; (2) optimal material properties for a pad depend on impact energy and (3) thicker pads perform better at all velocities. Although we considered only the isolated response of pad materials, not entire helmet systems, our analysis suggests that by using larger helmet shells with correspondingly thicker pads, impact-induced traumatic brain injury may be reduced.