Exponent’s consulting staff has the capability to analyze and test the injury mitigation potential of head protection devices and other personal protective equipment, including gear used in recreational sports, construction, the military, and motorcycle riding. Our engineers test personal protective equipment, including helmets, hard hats, shoulder padding, braces, and back/chest protectors, according to international standards and using recreations of real world impact scenarios. We apply these and other evaluations to the question of whether helmets and other protective devices would have prevented injury in specific accident situations.
International Standards Testing
Exponent can test helmets according to the specification found in most international standards, including ASTM, EN, and ISO standards. Our Testing and Engineering Center in Phoenix, AZ has a 16-foot drop rail that can be used with a variety of anvils to meet the needs of most standards. We also have pendulum systems and material testing machines to test whole helmets and individual helmet components.
Real-World Impact Testing
Exponent has a unique set of facilities and support staff that allow its engineers to design, construct, and use novel testing setups that recreate real world accident scenarios. For example, our engineers have built systems to test the injury mitigation potential of helmets and other personal protective equipment used in industrial environments, snow sports, water sports, motorcycling, bicycling, hockey and football.
Figure 1. Testing the efficacy of snowboard helmets during a typical backward fall. During a “backward edge catch” fall, a snowboarder unexpected catches the back edge of the snowboard, falls back, and hits the back of his or head on the ground. This testing used an anthropomorphic test device (“crash test dummy”) on a snow-covered slope in Exponent’s indoor test facility.
Figure 2. The effect of helmet “bucketing” on neck and head injury potential during recreational watersports.
Figure 3. Exponent has examined the ability of various recreational sports helmets to mitigate injury from a boom impact during sailing.
Figure 4. Drop testing has been used to determine the protective capabilities of snow sports and motorcycle helmets subjected to multiple impacts.
Figure 5. Testing personal protective equipment – simulating a hockey player receiving a shoulder check to the head.
Figure 6. Effect of microshell and full-face bicycle helmet on head-to-ground interaction and neck flexion in sloped compliant surface contact.
Effectiveness in Injury Mitigation
Exponent can provide an in-depth analysis to determine whether use of helmets or other protective gear equipment would have prevented injuries in specific accidents. Such analysis may include biomechanical accident reconstruction, analysis of human motion including impact and vault trajectory, review of medical records and research on specific injury mechanisms, surrogate measurements, and real-world testing and/or MADYMO simulation.
Figure 7. Measurement of surrogate rider head height to determine ground impact speed from accident reconstruction and ejection trajectory analysis.
Figure 8. Testing of hardhat effectiveness in construction workplace incident with dropped plywood sheet.
Post-Accident Helmet Inspection/Analysis
Our engineers have experience examining the post-accident damage to helmets that can be used to determine information about an accident, including the performance of helmet components. Our engineers can use non-destructive techniques, such as MRIs and CT scans, to examine helmets to determine impact location and severity. In some cases, we perform inspections involving careful removal of external shells to examine energy-absorbing materials for damage.