Improvements in the Design of Shoulder Pads and Boards for Preventing Head Injuries During Ice Hockey Collisions

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The proposed 5-year program of biomechanics research involves an integrated series of field and laboratory studies to improve our understanding of the dynamics of head impacts and injuries in hockey, and to use that information to design safer shoulder padding and dasher boards for players at various ages and skill levels. Under Aim 1, we will establish a “community of practice” for our engineering design projects, consisting of researchers, coaches, players, parents, and hockey association administrators. These stakeholders will participate throughout the project in designing, executing and disseminating our results, to inform and increase the impact of our efforts. Under Aim 2, we will work with the SFU hockey team and elite (checking) teams in the BC Pacific Coast Hockey association (with players aged 13-19) to record collisions in games and scrimmages, using networks of digital video cameras and wearable sensors (mounted on helmets and equipment). These data will be analyzed to identify the range of initial and boundary conditions (impact velocities and body segment configurations) and head accelerations involved in impacts to shoulder pads and boards. Under Aim 3, we will use that information to refine the design of laboratory experiments to evaluate current and novel types of shoulder pads and boards. In experiments with human participants, we will measure peak forces (from a force plate) while participants deliver “comfortable” shoulder checks to simulated players. These results will inform the development of lumped parameter mathematical models describing the impact response of the body, and of padding systems and boards. In complementary impact tests with drop tower and pendulum-type test rigs, we will measure peak linear and rotational accelerations of an impacting headform, and head injury criteria (HIC) values, during impacts onto shoulder pads and boards. These tests will simulate the range of initial and boundary conditions we observe in games. In each case, we will compare commercially available shoulder pads to novel hard and soft shell designs of varying elastic and loss modulus, thickness and surface geometry. We will also compare standard dasher boards to a novel board design containing adjustable stiffness elements between inner facing panels and outer support posts and panels. Our work involves key partners, and will train two Ph.D. students (one focused on shoulder pad design, and the other on board design) in the science and engineering of product design for injury prevention.