Novel instrumentation and models for biomechanical assessment of engineered protection devices

头部和脑损伤影响到社会的所有部门：普通平民;军事人员;执法人员;以及青年、成人、业余和专业运动员。在民用环境中，头部受伤发生在汽车碰撞和运动事故中的钝力冲击。在军事和执法中，它们可能发生在钝击、头盔上的弹道冲击以及暴露于爆炸物的爆炸中。总的来说，颅脑损伤导致数十亿美元的社会成本以及受伤者的长期痛苦。 工程师在理解头部保护装置（即头盔）以及实际上在设计用于头部保护装置的工程保护装置方面发挥着至关重要的作用。保护头部的能力是使用属于两类之一的模型进行测试。第一种是金属橡胶实验模型，其依赖于参数的测量，包括（但不限于）由于冲击引起的加速度或爆炸中的压力，其可以通过量化保护装置如何限制这些加速度或压力来以不同的准确度估计保护。第二种是计算机模型，通过估计避免对人体造成影响的冲击或爆炸能量，努力估计保护能力。计算机模型需要验证，以确保其输出表现出真实性，截至目前，它们尚未广泛用于保护装置的标准化认证和评估，部分原因是它们的验证正在进行中。实验模型在标准化测试和认证中广泛使用，但它们经常被批评为人类的不良模型。后一种担忧源于这样一个事实，即大多数机器人都被构造成机械坚固和可重复使用的，因此在许多情况下，它们不能准确地模拟相对脆弱的人类的反应。 拟议的计划通过开发机械现实的实验模型和先进的仪器来解决这些限制，这些仪器可以量化机械暴露于冲击和爆炸的缓解。为了防止这些伤害，同时试图减轻头盔佩戴者的身体负担，正在开发具有新型材料架构的防护头盔，该新型材料架构力求重量轻，同时保持防护功效。防止机械冲击和爆炸能量的转移是头盔设计的核心目标，因此准确的机械模型和仪器在评估中至关重要。

Head and brain injury affects all sectors of society: everyday civilians; military personnel; law enforcement personnel; and youth, adult, amateur and professional athletes. In civilian settings, head injuries occur through blunt impact in automotive collisions and sport incidents. In military and law enforcement, they can occur from blunt impact, ballistic impacts on helmets, and exposure to blast from explosives. Taken together, head-brain injury leads to societal costs of $Billions as well as long term suffering in the injured individual. Engineers play a vital role in understanding, and indeed in designing engineered protection devices for, head protection devices (i.e. helmets). The ability to protect the head is tested using models that fall into one of two categories. The first is metal-rubber experimental models that rely on measurements of parameters including (but not limited to) acceleration due to impact, or pressure in blast, that to varying degrees of accuracy can estimate protection by quantifying how well the protection device limits these accelerations or pressures. The second is computer models that strive to estimate capacity for protection by estimating the amount of impact or blast energy prevented from affecting the human. Computer models require validation to ensure that their outputs exhibit realism and as of now they are not widely used in standardized certification and assessment of protection devices partially because their validation is ongoing. Experimental models are widespread and used in standardized testing and certification, however they are often criticized as poor models for the human. This latter concern stems from the fact that most are constructed to be mechanically robust and re-usable, and as a result they don't, in many cases, accurately model the response of the relatively frailer human. The proposed program addresses these limitations by developing mechanically realistic experimental models and advanced instrumentation that quantify mitigation in mechanical exposure to impact and blast. To protect against these injuries while attempting to lessen the physical burden of the headgear-wearer, protective headgear is being developed with novel material architectures that strive for light-weight while retaining protective efficacy. Preventing transfer of mechanical impact and blast energy is the central goal behind headgear design, and therefore accurate mechanical models and instrumentation are vital in their assessment.