An Overview of the Effectiveness of Bicycle Helmet Designs in Impact Testing
Cycling accidents are the leading cause of sports-related head injuries in the US. Conventional bicycle helmets typically consist of polycarbonate shell over Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) foam and are tested with drop tests to evaluate a helmet’s ability to reduce head kinematics. Within the last decad...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Frontiers Media S.A.
2021-09-01
|
| Series: | Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fbioe.2021.718407/full |
| _version_ | 1818438843690385408 |
|---|---|
| author | Javid Abderezaei Fargol Rezayaraghi Brigit Kain Andrea Menichetti Mehmet Kurt Mehmet Kurt |
| author_facet | Javid Abderezaei Fargol Rezayaraghi Brigit Kain Andrea Menichetti Mehmet Kurt Mehmet Kurt |
| author_sort | Javid Abderezaei |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Cycling accidents are the leading cause of sports-related head injuries in the US. Conventional bicycle helmets typically consist of polycarbonate shell over Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) foam and are tested with drop tests to evaluate a helmet’s ability to reduce head kinematics. Within the last decade, novel helmet technologies have been proposed to mitigate brain injuries during bicycle accidents, which necessitates the evaluation of their effectiveness in impact testing as compared to conventional helmets. In this paper, we reviewed the literature to collect and analyze the kinematic data of drop test experiments carried out on helmets with different technologies. In order to provide a fair comparison across different types of tests, we clustered the datasets with respect to their normal impact velocities, impact angular momentum, and the type of neck apparatus. When we analyzed the data based on impact velocity and angular momentum clusters, we found that the bicycle helmets that used rotation damping based technology, namely MIPS, had significantly lower peak rotational acceleration (PRA) and Generalized Acceleration Model for Brain Injury Threshold (GAMBIT) as compared to the conventional EPS liner helmets (p < 0.01). SPIN helmets had a superior performance in PRA compared to conventional helmets (p < 0.05) in the impact angular momentum clustered group, but not in the impact-velocity clustered comparisons. We also analyzed other recently developed helmets that primarily use collapsible structures in their liners, such as WaveCel and Koroyd. In both of the impact velocity and angular momentum groups, helmets based on the WaveCel technology had significantly lower peak linear acceleration (PLA), PRA, and GAMBIT at low impact velocities as compared to the conventional helmets, respectively (p < 0.05). The protective gear with the airbag technology, namely Hövding, also performed significantly better compared to the conventional helmets in the analyzed kinematic-based injury metrics (p < 0.001), possibly due to its advantage in helmet size and stiffness. We also observed that the differences in the kinematic datasets strongly depend on the type of neck apparatus. Our findings highlight the importance and benefits of developing new technologies and impact testing standards for bicycle helmet designs for better prevention of traumatic brain injury (TBI). |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-14T17:47:01Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-d6fa55d2386d44f2b1a73680c9a83fe8 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2296-4185 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-14T17:47:01Z |
| publishDate | 2021-09-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology |
| spelling | doaj.art-d6fa55d2386d44f2b1a73680c9a83fe82022-12-21T22:52:43ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology2296-41852021-09-01910.3389/fbioe.2021.718407718407An Overview of the Effectiveness of Bicycle Helmet Designs in Impact TestingJavid Abderezaei0Fargol Rezayaraghi1Brigit Kain2Andrea Menichetti3Mehmet Kurt4Mehmet Kurt5Department of Mechanical Engineering, Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, NJ, United StatesDepartment of Mechanical Engineering, Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, NJ, United StatesDepartment of Biomedical Engineering, Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, NJ, United StatesBiomechanics Section, Mechanical Engineering Department, KU Leuven, Leuven, BelgiumDepartment of Mechanical Engineering, Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, NJ, United StatesBioMedical Engineering and Imaging Institute, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, NewYork, NY, United StatesCycling accidents are the leading cause of sports-related head injuries in the US. Conventional bicycle helmets typically consist of polycarbonate shell over Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) foam and are tested with drop tests to evaluate a helmet’s ability to reduce head kinematics. Within the last decade, novel helmet technologies have been proposed to mitigate brain injuries during bicycle accidents, which necessitates the evaluation of their effectiveness in impact testing as compared to conventional helmets. In this paper, we reviewed the literature to collect and analyze the kinematic data of drop test experiments carried out on helmets with different technologies. In order to provide a fair comparison across different types of tests, we clustered the datasets with respect to their normal impact velocities, impact angular momentum, and the type of neck apparatus. When we analyzed the data based on impact velocity and angular momentum clusters, we found that the bicycle helmets that used rotation damping based technology, namely MIPS, had significantly lower peak rotational acceleration (PRA) and Generalized Acceleration Model for Brain Injury Threshold (GAMBIT) as compared to the conventional EPS liner helmets (p < 0.01). SPIN helmets had a superior performance in PRA compared to conventional helmets (p < 0.05) in the impact angular momentum clustered group, but not in the impact-velocity clustered comparisons. We also analyzed other recently developed helmets that primarily use collapsible structures in their liners, such as WaveCel and Koroyd. In both of the impact velocity and angular momentum groups, helmets based on the WaveCel technology had significantly lower peak linear acceleration (PLA), PRA, and GAMBIT at low impact velocities as compared to the conventional helmets, respectively (p < 0.05). The protective gear with the airbag technology, namely Hövding, also performed significantly better compared to the conventional helmets in the analyzed kinematic-based injury metrics (p < 0.001), possibly due to its advantage in helmet size and stiffness. We also observed that the differences in the kinematic datasets strongly depend on the type of neck apparatus. Our findings highlight the importance and benefits of developing new technologies and impact testing standards for bicycle helmet designs for better prevention of traumatic brain injury (TBI).https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fbioe.2021.718407/fullbicycle helmetsconcussiontraumatic brain injuryTBIbrain injury riskmitigation system |
| spellingShingle | Javid Abderezaei Fargol Rezayaraghi Brigit Kain Andrea Menichetti Mehmet Kurt Mehmet Kurt An Overview of the Effectiveness of Bicycle Helmet Designs in Impact Testing Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology bicycle helmets concussion traumatic brain injury TBI brain injury risk mitigation system |
| title | An Overview of the Effectiveness of Bicycle Helmet Designs in Impact Testing |
| title_full | An Overview of the Effectiveness of Bicycle Helmet Designs in Impact Testing |
| title_fullStr | An Overview of the Effectiveness of Bicycle Helmet Designs in Impact Testing |
| title_full_unstemmed | An Overview of the Effectiveness of Bicycle Helmet Designs in Impact Testing |
| title_short | An Overview of the Effectiveness of Bicycle Helmet Designs in Impact Testing |
| title_sort | overview of the effectiveness of bicycle helmet designs in impact testing |
| topic | bicycle helmets concussion traumatic brain injury TBI brain injury risk mitigation system |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fbioe.2021.718407/full |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT javidabderezaei anoverviewoftheeffectivenessofbicyclehelmetdesignsinimpacttesting AT fargolrezayaraghi anoverviewoftheeffectivenessofbicyclehelmetdesignsinimpacttesting AT brigitkain anoverviewoftheeffectivenessofbicyclehelmetdesignsinimpacttesting AT andreamenichetti anoverviewoftheeffectivenessofbicyclehelmetdesignsinimpacttesting AT mehmetkurt anoverviewoftheeffectivenessofbicyclehelmetdesignsinimpacttesting AT mehmetkurt anoverviewoftheeffectivenessofbicyclehelmetdesignsinimpacttesting AT javidabderezaei overviewoftheeffectivenessofbicyclehelmetdesignsinimpacttesting AT fargolrezayaraghi overviewoftheeffectivenessofbicyclehelmetdesignsinimpacttesting AT brigitkain overviewoftheeffectivenessofbicyclehelmetdesignsinimpacttesting AT andreamenichetti overviewoftheeffectivenessofbicyclehelmetdesignsinimpacttesting AT mehmetkurt overviewoftheeffectivenessofbicyclehelmetdesignsinimpacttesting AT mehmetkurt overviewoftheeffectivenessofbicyclehelmetdesignsinimpacttesting |