Based on accident reports, oblique head impacts associated with rotational acceleration occur frequently in cycling. Rotational acceleration stimulates brain tissue strain resulting in mild to severe brain injuries. Current bicycle helmet standards test for linear acceleration, but not for rotational acceleration. The proposed standard (EN13087-11) by the European Committee for Standardization (CEN) and the Angular Launched Impact (ALI) protocol are oblique test protocols which impart rotational acceleration to the head at three impact locations (Front_Y, Lateral_X and Lateral_Z). The CEN proposed standard drops the helmeted headform vertically onto a 45° steel anvil, while the ALI protocol launches the headform at an angle of 45° towards the steel surface. The CEN proposed standard may represent a cyclist falling vertically onto a curb, angled surface or motor vehicle. The ALI represents a cyclist skidding or falling over the handlebars and have been described as frequent-accident cases in the literature. Both protocols represent unique falling events in cycling which elicit distinct rotational head responses. The purpose of this study was to compare the dynamic head response and brain tissue deformation between the two oblique test protocols on two common types of cycling helmets (PVC shell-PU liner and ABS shell-EPS liner). The study revealed that falling vertically onto a curb, angled surface or motor vehicle (CEN proposed standard), resulted in a greater rotational head response and brain tissue deformation, compared to frequent-accident events of skidding or falling over the handlebars (ALI protocol). Linear and rotational acceleration were significantly less on the PVC shell-PU liner compared to the ABS shell-EPS liner on both oblique test protocols. Distinct impact vectors associated with unique falling events in cycling create different rotational head responses and brain tissue deformation. Helmet standards should consider incorporating oblique testing methods, to manage mild and severe brain injuries associated with frequent falling events in cycling.

The Hybrid III and NOCSAE headforms are two headforms used in impact testing, though their vibrational characteristics are not well understood. They may have different kinematic responses in various impact scenarios if the impact excites any of their natural frequencies; resonance is especially likely to occur in short-duration impacts with a wider frequency spectrum. The same impact on two headforms that perform similarly in blunt impacts can be much different in shorter-duration projectile impacts due to the vibrational responses. The research presented in this thesis had three objectives: to identify the natural frequencies of the Hybrid III and NOCSAE headforms and compare them with published human head values to determine which has a more biofidelic vibrational response; to quantify the frequency response of different baseball catcher's masks and assess their abilities to limit vibrations transferred to the headforms; and to compare kinematic and frequency responses between headforms in different impact scenarios (high-speed, low-mass projectile impacts vs. low-speed, high-mass pendulum impacts) and see how they are affected by various types of head protection. The results show the importance of considering frequency content in impact testing, suggesting that the NOCSAE headform may be more biofidelic in short-duration impacts since its natural frequencies better align with those seen in the human head. The catcher's masks experienced greater vibrational responses than the headforms, but since the NOCSAE's first natural frequency falls within the bandwidth being excited, resonance was seen in this headform's acceleration responses for the projectile baseball impacts. Lastly, while both headforms had higher peak linear accelerations (PLAs) from the short-duration projectile impacts than the pendulum impacts, the projectile impacts caused high frequencies to be excited in the NOCSAE headform, while only exciting low frequencies in the Hybrid III. These results may not be as relevant for long-duration loadings, as indicated by the similar responses between headforms for both the pendulum and helmeted projectile impacts. However, when a wide range of frequencies are being excited with short-duration impacts, these results are important to consider, since natural frequency excitation can influence head injury risk due to higher accelerations. / Master of Science / The Hybrid III and NOCSAE headforms are dummy headforms used in impact testing, but their vibrational characteristics are poorly understood. They may perform differently in certain loading environments due to structural differences; their frequency responses might differ based on impact characteristics. Short-duration impacts excite a wider range of frequencies than longer-duration (padded) impacts. While headforms generally perform similarly during padded impacts where resonant frequencies are avoided, excitation of these frequencies during short-duration impacts can result in different kinematic measurements between headforms. The research presented in this thesis had three objectives: to identify the natural frequencies of the Hybrid III and NOCSAE headforms and compare them with published human values to determine which better represents the head's vibrational response; to quantify the vibrational characteristics of different baseball catcher's masks and assess their abilities to limit vibrations transferred to the headforms; and to compare kinematic and frequency responses between headforms in different impact scenarios (high-speed, low-mass projectile impacts vs. low-speed, high-mass pendulum impacts) and see how they are affected by various helmets. The results show the importance of considering frequency content in impact testing, suggesting that the NOCSAE headform behaves more like the human head in short-duration impacts. Even though the catcher's masks "rang" more than the headforms, the vibrations from the projectile impact were in the appropriate range to excite the NOCSAE's natural frequencies. Thus, there was still an oscillatory response in this headform even when protected with the mask. Lastly, the projectile impacts caused higher accelerations in both headforms than the pendulum impacts. However, high frequencies were only experienced by the NOCSAE headform due to the projectile impacts; for the same impact, the Hybrid III just had low frequencies excited. These results are not as relevant for long-duration impacts, since there were similar responses in both headforms for both the pendulum and helmeted projectile impacts. However, they are very applicable for the short-duration impacts that excite a wide range of frequencies, since natural frequency excitation can increase the risk of head injury due to higher acceleration magnitudes.

More than 19 million children participate in youth baseball and softball annually. Although baseball and softball are not commonly depicted as contact sports in the, according to the U.S. CPSC baseball and softball were responsible for 11.6% of all head injuries treated in emergency rooms in 2009; third most behind only cycling and football. Ball impact has been identified as the leading cause of injury in baseball and softball, with the most frequent injury resulting from a ball impacting the head. Reduced injury factor balls, infield softball masks, batter's helmets, and catcher's masks have all been integrated into baseball and softball as a means for preventing serious head injury from ball impact. The research in this thesis had four objectives: to compare the responses of the Hybrid III and NOCSAE headforms during high velocity projectile impacts, to compare head injury risk across a range of baseball stiffness designed for different age groups, to evaluate the effectiveness of infielder softball masks' ability to attenuate facial fracture risk, and to describe a novel methodology to evaluate the performance of batter's helmets and catcher's masks. Results of these research objectives determined the most suitable ATD headform to evaluate head injury risk for high velocity projectile impacts, provided a framework for determining the optimal age-specific ball stiffness and optimal infield mask design, and disseminated STAR ratings for batter's helmets and catcher's masks to the public. The research presented in this thesis can be used to further improve safety in baseball and softball. / MS / Baseball and softball are two commonly played sports, however, they combine to yield some of the highest head injury rates among sports. Safety measures like protective headgear and softer balls have been implemented into the games, but there is currently no metric for comparing different models and brands on their effectiveness at reducing head injury. The research in this thesis provides an evaluation system that compares the effectiveness of protective headgear between different models and brands and their ability to reduce head injury. This research is presented to the public as a purchasing tool and can be used to further improve the safety in baseball and softball.

No description available.

Traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) encompass an array of head trauma caused by diverse mechanisms, including falls, vehicular accidents, and sports-related incidents. These injuries vary from concussions to diffuse axonal injuries. TBIs are characterized by the linear and rotational accelerations of the head during an impact, which are influenced by various factors such as the velocity and location of the impact and the contact surface. Consequently, the accuracy of laboratory tests designed to evaluate protective technologies must closely mirror real-world conditions. This dissertation explores the boundary conditions essential for accurately replicating head impacts in laboratory settings. The research aims to improve the reconstruction of head impacts, concentrating on two main areas: 1) examining various aspects of friction during head impacts and 2) biomechanically characterizing the head impacts sustained by older adults during falls. This study provides insights into the overall influence of friction during head impacts. It investigates the friction coefficients between the helmet's shell and the impact surface, as well as between human heads, headforms, and helmets. Additionally, it assesses how these frictional interactions influence oblique impact kinematics. Defining static and dynamic friction coefficients of the human head and headforms is needed to develop more realistic head impact testing methods, define helmet-head boundary conditions for computer-aided simulations, and provide a framework for cross-comparative analysis between studies that use different headforms and headform alterations. This research also introduces and evaluates the accuracy of a model-based image mapping method to measure head impact speeds from single-view videos in un-calibrated environments. This measurement technique advances our comprehension of head impact kinematics derived from uncalibrated video data. By applying this method, videos of falls involving older adults were analyzed to determine head impact speeds and boundary conditions. The resulting data was used to construct headform impacts, capturing linear and rotational head impact kinematics. These reconstructions can inform the development of biomechanical testing protocols tailored to assess protective gear for older adults, with the goal of reducing fall-related head injuries. / Doctor of Philosophy / Traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) are head injuries that can happen in many ways, such as from falling, car accidents, or playing sports. These injuries can range from mild concussions to more severe cases, brain bleeds, or skull fractures. They happen when the head moves quickly or spins because of a hit, which can be affected by the speed of the impact, where on the head the impact happens, or what the head impacts against. Therefore, the accuracy of laboratory reconstruction head impact tests must closely mirror real-world conditions. This dissertation explores the boundary conditions essential for accurately replicating head impacts in laboratory settings. The research aims to improve the reconstruction of head impacts, concentrating on two main areas: 1) examining various aspects of friction during head impacts and 2) biomechanically characterizing the head impacts sustained by older adults during falls. This study provides insights into the overall influence of friction during head impacts. It investigates the friction coefficients between the helmet's shell and the impact surface, as well as between human heads, headforms, and helmets. Additionally, it assesses how these frictional interactions affect head impacts. Understanding how friction influences head impacts is crucial for improving helmet testing methods and allows for more consistent comparisons across various research studies that use different headform models or modifications. This research also introduces and evaluates a method to calculate head impact speeds by analyzing video footage, even if the video was not taken with special equipment or setup. This approach improves our understanding of head movements during accidents by using video clips of falls, particularly those involving older adults, to determine the head speeds and conditions of the impact. The information gathered from these analyses helps to reconstruct these impacts using a headform to measure injury metrics. These reconstructions are crucial for designing tests that can evaluate safety equipment meant to protect older adults from head injuries during falls.

With a rise in wearable sensor technology and the desire to investigate head impacts in previously unstudied groups, wearable head impact sensors have reached nation-wide popularity for their promising benefits to consumers and researchers. However, there are risks in relying on such technology before proper validation of its performance has been completed. Preliminary tests have found that current sensors vary widely in performance. The objective of this work was to develop and implement a test method for evaluation of wearable sensors in an ideal laboratory environment. A custom pendulum was used to impact a NOCSAE headform mounted on a Hybrid III neck. Sensors were tested under helmeted and unhelmeted conditions, according to their prescribed use. The headform was impacted at four locations, each at four impact energies ranging from 25 g to 100 g. Peak and time series headform kinematics output by each sensor were compared to accelerometers and angular rate sensors inside the headform. Average and standard deviations of peak sensor error and normalized RMS error were evaluated at each test condition to describe sensor performance. Requirements were set in the slope and coefficient of determination from linear regressions constrained through the origin to describe adequate sensor performance under ideal conditions. Sensors that met the requirement in at least one kinematic variable will be further evaluated in more realistic on-field and cadaver tests. The combination of all testing phases will be used to provide an overall sensor evaluation for both researchers and consumers. / Master of Science

Recent applications of medical imaging, advanced polymers, and composites have led to the development of new equipment for athletes and soldiers. A desire to understand the performance of headgear that resists impacts ongoing since the 1970’s has found more traction in recent years with the usage experimental models that have a greater degree of bio-fidelity. In order to determine which features of helmets from different sports (Soccer, Lacrosse, Football, and Hockey) were tested on a Hybrid III 50th Percentile Male headform with an accelerometer rig at the center of mass.Testing was performed by administering impacts to the headform with an impulse hammer that provides transient force data in order to quantify inputs and outputs of the system to develop a non-dimensional transfer function. Helmet performance is compared by sport worn in order to determine desirable manufacturing features and develop prototype helmets that outperforms current athletic equipment.

Football safety has increased over time, in part due to improvements in equipment and body mechanics, but there are still inherent risks involved, including exposure to repetitive head impacts (RHI). Significant head impacts can result in a constellation of symptoms including nausea, vomiting, headache, dizziness, and amnesia, which typically assist in the diagnosis of concussion. However, it has been shown that subconcussive impacts may result in microstructural changes and physiological alterations in the brain. This is particularly concerning because athletes may be undergoing changes in the brain in the absence of outwardly visible symptoms. Poorer neurologic outcomes later in life have been associated with cumulative exposure rather than number of diagnosed concussions. Accelerometers installed in helmets have shown that college football players may receive up to 1,850 head impacts throughout the course of one season. The concussion rate is obviously much lower, indicating there are a high number of head impacts per diagnosed concussion. Axons are especially susceptible to damage from RHI because of their extension throughout the nervous system. The subtle changes thought to result from RHI are not easy to measure, but several modalities have been proposed. These include diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), plasma tau protein, and King-Devick testing. The proposed study will look to quantify cumulative head impact exposure in college football players prior to the start of a season and see if this has any impact on the variables. They will then participate in one season of football wearing helmet accelerometers to measure the number of head impacts sustained. Changes in the variables will be compared to non-contact sport college athletes. Data will be analyzed to determine if number of head impacts correlates with changes in variables and if prior head impact exposure has any effect on these changes. Data obtained from this study will have significant implications in the field of head injury. It may strengthen the use of several markers of brain injury that could be utilized in the future. Additionally, the effects of cumulative head impact exposure and one season of head impacts will be thoroughly examined. This information can be provided to trainers, coaches, and athletes to further improve football safety.

The long-term consequences of repetitive mild traumatic brain injuries (mTBIs), or concussions, as well as the immediate acute dangers of head collisions in sport have become of growing concern in the field of medicine, research and athletics. An estimated 3.8 million sports-related concussions occur in the United States annually, with the highest incidence having been documented in football, hockey, soccer, basketball and rugby (Harmon et al., 2013). The incidence of concussion in the National Rugby League (NRL) corresponds to approximately 8.0-17.5 injuries per 1000 playing hours, with tackling having been identified as the most common cause (Gardner et al., 2014; King et al., 2014). The highest incidence of rugby concussive impacts is a result of shoulder-to-head collisions (35%) during tackles and game play (Gardner et al., 2014). Shoulder-to-head concussive events occur primarily on the ball carrier and secondarily on the tacklers (Hendricks et al., 2014; Quarrie & Hopkins, 2008). While some studies report that the ball carrier is at a greater risk of sustaining a concussion (Gardner et al., 2015; King et al., 2010, 2014), others have demonstrated a greater incidence of tacklers being removed from play for sideline concussion evaluation (Gardner et al., 2014). Given this discrepancy, the purpose of this study was to compare dynamic response and brain tissue deformation metrics for ball carriers and defensive tacklers in professional rugby during shoulder-to-head concussive impacts using in-laboratory reconstructions. Ten cases with an injured defensive tackler and ten cases with an injured ball carrier were reconstructed using a pneumatic linear impactor striking a 50th percentile Hybrid III headform to calculate dynamic response and maximum principal strain values. There was no significant difference between the two impact conditions for peak resultant linear and rotational accelerations, as well as brain tissue deformation. Differences between metrics in this research and past research where the impacting system was not reported were discussed. These differences reflect the importance of accounting for impact compliance when describing the risk associated with collisions in professional rugby.

Contact and collision sports (CCS) expose athletes to countless repetitive head impacts (RHI) across a single season, potentially leading to increased risk of long-term difficulties in cognition and the development of neurodegenerative disease. There is mixed literature on whether RHI from CCS result in changes to white matter and long-term neurobehavioral outcomes, therefore this research project seeks to provide supporting evidence by comparing the total volume of fluid-attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR) white matter lesions in individuals with a history of RHI from CCS to those without a history of RHI from the Boston University Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center (BU ADRC). The RHI participants were matched to a group of non-RHI participants based on age (+/- 5 years). Effects of RHI on white matter hyperintensities (WMHs) are evaluated, while considering hippocampal volume across RHI and non-RHI groups. When controlling for age, sex, education, and total hippocampal volume, those with a history of football were found to have a significantly greater WMH volume (p=.02) compared to those without a history of football play. Compared to the non-RHI group, the RHI group including all athletes (n=42) had a greater WMH volume, although it did not reach a level of significance (p=.91). This investigation provided preliminary evidence for a link between high RHI exposure and WMHs in football players, and a non-significant relationship between RHI and increased WMHs in those with a history of CCS compared to individuals in the non-RHI group. Future research should expand upon this investigation, by examining RHI exposure and WMH consequences in a diverse assortment of sports, follow athletes longitudinally for repeated in vivo MRIs and post-mortem neuropathological confirmation, and include more female athletes.