Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is an acquired neurological disorder that can cause long-lasting disability with limited treatment options. Therefore preventative strategies must be emphasized in high-risk activities to reduce the individual and societal burden of this pervasive injury. Bicycle activities account for 20 percent of all sports-related TBI, with 42,000 annual injuries in the U.S.. In an effort to alleviate the incidence and severity of these head injuries, helmet usage is now customary, and in some States mandatory. However, contemporary bicycle helmets are not designed to mitigate rotational head acceleration, which is a clear physical mechanism of TBI. A novel helmet using High Impact Velocity Engineering (HIVE) technology is therefore proposed that integrates recent advances in material science to provide superior energy absorption in a lightweight and cost-effective design. A key innovation of the HIVE helmet is that its structural properties behave similar to a torsional spring and damper, and thus enable the HIVE helmet to attenuate severe angular head accelerations. The specific aim of this study is to determine whether the HIVE helmet can significantly reduce the risk of TBI compared to standard helmets. Mechanical testing of HIVE helmets and standard helmets will be performed with an oblique helmet testing rig that can measure linear and angular acceleration during vertical and oblique impacts. The resulting kinematic data will be input into an established computational model that predicts the risk of TBI. Mechanical and computational results of the two helmets groups will be statistically compared. If successful, the HIVE helmet will offer advanced head protection for bicyclists, and potentially reduce the incidence of bicycle-related TBI.
Public Health Relevance: There are 42,000 bicycle-related traumatic brain injuries (TBI) that occur annually in the U.S. with an associated societal cost of $2.5 billion. Although bicycle helmets should offer a clear preventative strategy to reduce bicycle- related TBI, contemporary bicycle helmets are not engineered to atenuate rotational head acceleration, a primary physical mechanism of TBI. A helmet impact mitigation technology is proposed that absorbs rotational energy, and therefore will potentially reduce the high incidence of bicycle-related TBI.
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