Novel instrumentation and models for biomechanical assessment of engineered protection devices

头部和脑损伤影响社会各阶层：普通民众；军事人员；执法人员；以及青少年、成人、业余和职业运动员。在民用环境中，头部受伤是由于汽车碰撞和运动事故中的钝器撞击而造成的。在军事和执法领域，钝器撞击、对头盔的弹道撞击以及暴露在爆炸物的爆炸中可能会发生这种情况。总的来说，头脑损伤会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）以及设计工程保护装置方面发挥着至关重要的作用。使用属于两类之一的模型来测试保护头部的能力。第一个是金属橡胶实验模型，它依赖于参数的测量，包括（但不限于）冲击引起的加速度或爆炸中的压力，可以通过量化保护装置限制这些加速度或压力的程度来以不同程度的精度来估计保护。第二个是计算机模型，它通过估计防止影响人类的冲击力或爆炸能量来估计保护能力。计算机模型需要验证以确保其输出表现出真实性，到目前为止，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。实验模型广泛用于标准化测试和认证，但它们经常被批评为不适合人类的模型。后一种担忧源于这样一个事实，即大多数结构都具有机械坚固性和可重复使用性，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真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中的缓解措施。为了防止这些伤害，同时试图减轻头盔佩戴者的身体负担，正在开发采用新颖材料结构的防护头盔，力求轻量化，同时保持防护功效。防止机械冲击和爆炸能量的传递是头盔设计的核心目标，因此准确的机械模型和仪器对其评估至关重要。

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.