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Investigations of Modern-Day Head Injuries: Safety Provided by Youth Football Helmets and Risk Posed by Unmanned Aircraft Systems

Stark, David
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1555260793383847

Abstract Details

2019, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, Mechanical Engineering.
Millions of head and brain injuries occur each year in the United States with severities ranging from mild to traumatic. Mild traumatic brain injuries, commonly known as concussions are common among sporting activities, specifically American Football. Most research of football concussion injuries focuses on professional and collegiate level athletes. Work is needed to quantify how modern football helmets protect against concussion injuries at the youth level. For this investigation, two studies were carried out. These studies focused on determining how both helmet mass and head-helmet relative motion may affect a youth athlete’s concussion risk during impact events. In these studies, impacts were carried out on a child crash test dummy (ATD) wearing youth football helmets of varying mass. The relative motion between the ATD head and football helmets was quantitatively measured throughout each impact using a motion capture system. Results from these studies displayed that both helmet mass and head-helmet relative motion can have a significant effect on injury metrics commonly used to predict concussion. However, helmet mass was found to have less of an effect on injury criteria values than other parameters such as helmet brand and impact direction. Additionally, head-helmet relative motion was found to be positively related to rotationally based injury criteria. The amount of relative motion between the head and helmet was dependent on each helmet’s stand-off distance and padding design. While concussions are a mild brain injury with a large prevalence, drone, or UAS head impacts pose a risk for more traumatic head injuries but currently have a low prevalence. However, the rate of drone impacts is likely to increase as the industry is expanding at a rapid rate and benefits associated with drone use are driving new federal regulations which would allow for more widespread UAS flights over people. Before UAS flight over people is made legal, the risk of human injury due to UAS impacts must be quantified and understood. For this work, UAS head impacts were carried out on post-mortem human surrogates (PMHS) (i.e. cadavers) and the Hybrid III ATD. PMHS impacts were used to assess the likelihood of injury resulting from UAS impacts, while ATD tests were compared to matched PMHS data to assess how well the ATD replicates human response in this new impact scenario. The study’s main conclusions were that serious head injuries are possible as a result of UAS impacts and additional investigation is required to determine appropriate injury criteria for use in predicting the severity of head injuries in UAS impact cases. Additionally, the ATD response did not replicate that of the PMHS, specifically in angled or vertical impacts; thus, caution should be exercised when using the Hybrid III ATD to assess the risk of injury in UAS impact scenarios.
John H. Bolte IV, PhD (Advisor)
Yun-Seok Kang, PhD (Committee Member)
Laura C. Boucher, PhD (Committee Member)
James W. Gregory, PhD (Committee Member)
358 p.
Biomechanics; Biomedical Engineering; Mechanical Engineering
injury biomechanics; PMHS; ATD; concussion; brain injury; TBI; skull fracture; pediatric; drone; head; brain; skull

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Stark, D. (2019). Investigations of Modern-Day Head Injuries: Safety Provided by Youth Football Helmets and Risk Posed by Unmanned Aircraft Systems [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1555260793383847

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Stark, David. Investigations of Modern-Day Head Injuries: Safety Provided by Youth Football Helmets and Risk Posed by Unmanned Aircraft Systems. 2019. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1555260793383847.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Stark, David. "Investigations of Modern-Day Head Injuries: Safety Provided by Youth Football Helmets and Risk Posed by Unmanned Aircraft Systems." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2019. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1555260793383847

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu1555260793383847
293
© 2019, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.