Investigating hockey helmeted impacts to mitigate concussion risks using a hybrid experimental and computational approach

脑震荡成为加拿大专业和业余运动员参与体育运动的一个重要问题，特别是曲棍球和足球等接触性运动。然而，尚未解决的挑战是了解不同的头盔设计如何帮助大脑，大脑被封闭在坚硬的头骨内，很难通过实验观察。因此，我们将进行先进的计算模拟，以了解不同的头盔冲击如何影响大脑的机械反应。拟议的研究包括四个部分的工作是紧密结合的。首先，我们将进行高速撞击，以了解头部的线性和旋转运动。其次，我们将进行先进的建模，以系统地了解各种影响如何影响大脑应变以及大脑轴突应变。头盔设计和大脑反应之间的这种系统的理解是迫切需要的，并将通过本项目提出的实验和数值相结合的方法来实现。第三，我们将进行全面的统计分析，以了解各种头盔和头部反应之间的相关性，包括线性加速度，旋转加速度，运动学得分和大脑反应。最后，我们将结合有限元曲棍球头盔模型和人体模型，研究各种头盔设计如何有助于减少大脑紧张，从而使头盔对人脑更安全。总的来说，这个项目将有助于开发新的头盔，可以更好地帮助人类的大脑，而不是减少头部运动学的假人头部。

Concussion emerges as a significant issue for Canadian professional and amateur players involved in sports, especially contact sports such as hockey and football. However, the unresolved challenge is to understand how different helmet designs help the brain, which is enclosed inside the stiff skull and hard to experimentally observe. Hence, we will conduct advanced computational simulations to understand how different helmeted impacts affect brain mechanical responses. The proposed research includes four sections of work that are tightly integrated. First, we will conduct high-rate impacts to understand head linear and rotational motions. Second, we will conduct advanced modeling to systematically understand how various impacts affect brain strains as well brain axonal strains. Such a systematic understanding between helmet designs and brain responses is urgently needed and will be achieved through a combined experimental and numerical approach proposed in this project. Third, we will conduct a thorough statistical analysis to understand the correlations between various helmets and head responses including linear acceleration, rotational acceleration, kinematics score, and brain responses. Finally, we will incorporate finite element hockey helmet model and human model and study how various helmet designs could contribute to minimizing brain strains, hence making helmets safer for the human brain. Overall, this project will help develop new helmets that can better help a human brain rather than reducing the head kinematics of a dummy head.