Search Results

Head trauma continues to be the most frequent cause of life threatening injury to racing drivers and protecting the driver's head is of prime importance. A head protection system must ensure that any loads or accelerations imparted to the head do not exceed those which may cause injury. The FIA commissioned the Transport Research Laboratory (TRL) in the UK to develop an advanced protective helmet and to propose an improved standard to which Formula-One protective helmets must comply. Throughout the project, TRL worked closely with the FIA Research Group, Carbon Fibre Technologies-UK, Bell Sports Europe and Snell-USA. During a preliminary phase, the performance of current motorsport helmets was evaluated with regard to both laboratory test and simulated accident conditions. Based on this work, provisional performance criteria were agreed for the improved helmet design.

Motor racing circuit barrier systems have traditionally been tested by impacting them with, typically, a 780kg, 450mm x 450mm flat impactor, at a velocity of 12m/s (43.2kph). Since the adoption of energy absorbing nose-cones on Formula1 and other single-seater racing cars, which are subject to an FIA impact test into a rigid barrier, it has become necessary to develop a more appropriate barrier test to take into account the compatibility between the sharp, rigid nose-cone and the relatively soft tyre barriers that are used on circuits world-wide. The FIA commissioned the Transport Research Laboratories (TRL) in the UK, to carry out a series of barrier impact tests using a Formula 3000 nose-cone mounted on the 780kg impacting trolley, at speeds of 16.7m/s (60kph) and 22.2m/s (80kph).

An impact to the head has been the most frequent cause of life threatening injury to racing drivers, and protecting the driver's head is of prime importance. A head protection system must ensure that any loads or accelerations imparted do not exceed those which may cause injury. The aim of this work was investigate a number accidents during which a head injury or a substantial head impact occurred, in order to provide a better understanding of accident kinematics and head injury mechanisms. This work has been extremely important in providing detailed data on driver tolerance to head injury, for both translational and rotational motion, which both contribute significantly to injuries sustained during head impact. This work has indicated that the threshold for driver head injury may be somewhat higher than current published and accepted criteria. The results from this study will provide valuable information to ongoing FIA-TRL research into motorsport safety.

Currently, there is great interest in motorsports medicine in measuring driver head impact accelerations by adding small triaxial accelerometers to the communication earpieces worn by drivers. Various studies have attempted to validate the ability of the earpiece accelerometers to accurately measure head accelerations. Those experiments demonstrate success in being able to measure head accelerations on dummies and humans in low severity impacts and non-impact head motion. No study has been performed to ascertain the ability of the earpiece accelerometers to accurately measure rigid body head accelerations of the skull when they are mounted in a human ear canal and subjected to high severity head accelerations. This research was performed to evaluate the frequency response and coupling of the earpiece accelerometers to the human skull using post mortem human subject (PMHS) heads as the most realistic surrogate for the living human.

The Head and Neck Support device (HANS) was developed to reduce the potentially injurious motions to the head and neck during severe frontal and angled-frontal impacts. The effectiveness of the HANS device has been rigorously proven by extensive HyGe sled test work by Daimler-Chrysler (Germany) and reported in two SAE papers (1,2). The aim of this work was to develop appropriate test methodologies and criteria for a new FIA Test Specification to support the integration of the HANS system into the FIA Formula One and Formula 3000 Championships. The new test specification includes requirements for both the HANS system and the HANS to helmet interface. It was also necessary to formulate an objective geometrical definition for the HANS system. The laboratory test configuration was developed to simulate the loading conditions during a dynamic sled test. TRL conducted both proof and destructive tests, in order to establish appropriate criteria.

Currently, no high impact helmet standards exist for children. To meet the rising demand for these helmets in the youth market, manufacturers have basically downsized adult helmets. Children's heads and necks are very different than are adult's. Therefore, youth helmets do not provide the same level of protection as do adult helmets. We determined head mass and circumference in 128 childhood athletes aged 7 to 17, as well as made 95 separate anthropometric measurements from skull x-rays of children aged 6 to 17. We defined two distinct age groups. Group A, ages 6 to 11, and Group B ages 12 to 17. Comparing these measurements to adult measurements, and using previously reported anatomical differences we were able to show that the heads and necks of children are much different than are adults in mass, circumference and the ratio of head length to neck length. And, that these differences point out real and potential issues with youth helmets.