Novel Helmet Liner 30 Times Better At Stopping Concussions (newatlas.com) 50
An anonymous reader quotes a report from New Atlas: Researchers have developed a new, lightweight foam made from carbon nanotubes that, when used as a helmet liner, absorbed the kinetic energy caused by an impact almost 30 times better than liners currently used in US military helmets. The foam could prevent or significantly reduce the likelihood of concussion in military personnel and sportspeople. Among sportspeople and military vets, traumatic brain injury (TBI) is one of the major causes of permanent disability and death. Injury statistics show that the majority of TBIs, of which concussion is a subtype, are associated with oblique impacts, which subject the brain to a combination of linear and rotational kinetic energy forces and cause shearing of the delicate brain tissue.
To improve their effectiveness, helmets worn by military personnel and sportspeople must employ a liner material that limits both. This is where researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison come in. Determined to prevent -- or lessen the effect of -- TBIs caused by knocks to the body and head, they've developed a new lightweight foam material for use as a helmet liner. For the current study, Thevamaran built upon his previous research into vertically aligned carbon nanotube (VACNT) foams -- carefully arranged layers of carbon cylinders one atom thick -- and their exceptional shock-absorbing capabilities. Current helmets attempt to reduce rotational motion by allowing a sliding motion between the wearer's head and the helmet during impact. However, the researchers say this movement doesn't dissipate energy in shear and can jam when severely compressed following a blow. Instead, their novel foam doesn't rely on sliding layers.
VACNT foam sidesteps this shortcoming via its unique deformation mechanism. Under compression, the VACNTs undergo collective sequentially progressive buckling, from increased compliance at low shear strain levels to a stiffening response at high strain levels. The formed compression buckles unfold completely, enabling the VACNT foam to accommodate large shear strains before returning to a near initial state when the load is removed. The researchers found that at 25% precompression, the foam exhibited almost 30 times higher energy dissipation in shear -- up to 50% shear strain -- than polyurethane-based elastomeric foams of similar density. The study has been published in the journal Experimental Mechanics.
To improve their effectiveness, helmets worn by military personnel and sportspeople must employ a liner material that limits both. This is where researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison come in. Determined to prevent -- or lessen the effect of -- TBIs caused by knocks to the body and head, they've developed a new lightweight foam material for use as a helmet liner. For the current study, Thevamaran built upon his previous research into vertically aligned carbon nanotube (VACNT) foams -- carefully arranged layers of carbon cylinders one atom thick -- and their exceptional shock-absorbing capabilities. Current helmets attempt to reduce rotational motion by allowing a sliding motion between the wearer's head and the helmet during impact. However, the researchers say this movement doesn't dissipate energy in shear and can jam when severely compressed following a blow. Instead, their novel foam doesn't rely on sliding layers.
VACNT foam sidesteps this shortcoming via its unique deformation mechanism. Under compression, the VACNTs undergo collective sequentially progressive buckling, from increased compliance at low shear strain levels to a stiffening response at high strain levels. The formed compression buckles unfold completely, enabling the VACNT foam to accommodate large shear strains before returning to a near initial state when the load is removed. The researchers found that at 25% precompression, the foam exhibited almost 30 times higher energy dissipation in shear -- up to 50% shear strain -- than polyurethane-based elastomeric foams of similar density. The study has been published in the journal Experimental Mechanics.
Bicycle helments? (Score:3)
This should help more than military personnel and football players.
Re: Bicycle helments? (Score:1)
Wait, did you really just claim that the word âoesportspeopleâ is such an affront that you needed to post on the internet about how terrible it is? How dare people use a simple word with an obvious and understandable meaning!
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You hadn't heard the word woke before 2010, and yet, here you are, using it.
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You hadn't heard the word woke before 2010, and yet, here you are, using it.
Actually anyone paying attention heard it from 1960s/70s radicals during those days. And from the college campus recruitments of these radicals in the 1980s where they indoctrinated elements of the next generation. Etc.
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"OED's [The Oxford English Dictionary] earliest evidence for sportspeople is from 1926."
A bit older than your ridiculous claim would suggest.
And to address your other nonsense, the best therapy for most trans people is to transition. Surgery is only a small part of that transition, and isn't always a part of it at all.
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Not to mention all the skaters.
Re: Bicycle helments? (Score:2)
Since when are cyclists, skiers and skaters not sportspeople?
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Since when are cyclists, skiers and skaters not sportspeople?
Since the gear in question is generally for professionals. Where the high cost, new and exotic is acceptable.
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This should help more than military personnel and football players.
Sorry, the tech is reserved for premium priced goods. Not mass market goods.
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Currently the hard core cyclists are claiming that helmets make your injuries worse. At this point I'm not sure anything could convince some of them to take even the most basic safety precautions. The even object to things like wearing reflective clothing or having lights on their bikes.
The stronger the helmet the harder the hit (Score:5, Interesting)
As far as US football goes IMHO Mike Ditka of people was right about helmets and concussions: the more advanced helmets get the harder players learn to hit with their heads. Make the helmets 30x more concussion resistant and players will learn to hit things [1] 35x harder. Ditka advocated going back to leather earflap helmets to reduce concussions and while it was said in a "back in the day we were real men" mode I'm not sure he was wrong about that.
[1] yeah, I know, there are rules changes in place to prohibit direct hits with the top of the head. We'll see how that works in the long run [prediction: it won't]
Re:The stronger the helmet the harder the hit (Score:4, Interesting)
Problem is, back in the day they were real men and real men who wanted to play a sport and not cause as much damage to the "enemy" as possible.
Today, they try their best to get that star player off the turf with any legal move possible.
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Problem is, back in the day they were real men and real men who wanted to play a sport and not cause as much damage to the "enemy" as possible.
Today, they try their best to get that star player off the turf with any legal move possible.
Yeah sure [www.cbc.ca].
The difference between now and then is that modern athletes are bigger, faster, stronger, and more competitive. The desire to hurt opposing stars is probably less than it was but the intensity of the game and the force of hits is so much higher that injuries are more common.
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As far as US football goes IMHO Mike Ditka of people was right about helmets and concussions: the more advanced helmets get the harder players learn to hit with their heads. Make the helmets 30x more concussion resistant and players will learn to hit things [1] 35x harder. Ditka advocated going back to leather earflap helmets to reduce concussions and while it was said in a "back in the day we were real men" mode I'm not sure he was wrong about that.
[1] yeah, I know, there are rules changes in place to prohibit direct hits with the top of the head. We'll see how that works in the long run [prediction: it won't]
He's correct. In sports like Rugby, there's a lot of bumps and bruises, but less nasty ones. They don't wear much at all.
In my sport, Ice Hockey, we are armored head to toe. I've had people hit me while they are skating full speed, and I've been almost motionless at the boards retrieving a puck. No one injured or even bruised.
But what happens is that there will be occasions where "shit happens". and the increased velocity and locations of hits make for worse injuries.
In my time I've had a broken ank
Re:The stronger the helmet the harder the hit (Score:4, Informative)
He's correct. In sports like Rugby, there's a lot of bumps and bruises, but less nasty ones. They don't wear much at all.
Apparently despite this logically kindof tracking is not the case, at least from a study I found this and rugby ends up with more concussions and overall injuries than football
Comparison of Injuries in American Collegiate Football and Club Rugby: A Prospective Cohort Study [nih.gov]
The overall injury rate was 4.9/1000 AEs in football versus 15.2/1000 AEs in rugby: IRR = 3.1 (95% CI, 2.3-4.2). Game injury rates were higher than practice injury rates: IRR = 6.5 (95% CI, 4.5-9.3) in football and IRR = 5.1 (95% CI, 3.0-8.6) in rugby.
Injury rates for the shoulder, wrist/hand, and lower leg and for sprains, fractures, and contusions in rugby were >4 times as high as those in football (all P 0.006).
Concussion rates were 1.0/1000 AEs in football versus 2.5/1000 AEs in rugby. Most injuries occurred via direct player contact, especially during games. The rate of season-ending injuries (>3 months of time loss) was 0.8/1000 AEs in football versus 1.0/1000 AEs in rugby: IRR = 1.3 (95% CI, 0.4-3.4).
Biden even had to get fact checked when he said football was safer than rugby
https://www.wral.com/story/fac... [wral.com]
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He's correct. In sports like Rugby, there's a lot of bumps and bruises, but less nasty ones. They don't wear much at all.
Apparently despite this logically kindof tracking is not the case, at least from a study I found this and rugby ends up with more concussions and overall injuries than football
I stand corrected! Or sit, or something.
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> Or sit, or something.
How about, "reel about in confusion after the hit"? :)
hawk
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> Or sit, or something.
How about, "reel about in confusion after the hit"? :)
hawk
Been there and done that!
Or there was the time the blade of an opposing players stick got caught in my hockey pants. I dropped, and he dropped his stick immediately, and the ref blew the whistle to keep um, things from getting worse. No harm done fortunately.
On a related issue, we found out one of the guys on my team wasn't wearing his cup, because he could skate faster without it, We argued about it a while, so after the game, I told his girlfriend. He called me an asshole before the next game, but
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> Or sit, or something.
How about, "reel about in confusion after the hit"? :)
hawk
Been there and done that!
Or there was the time the blade of an opposing players stick got caught in my hockey pants. I dropped, and he dropped his stick immediately, and the ref blew the whistle to keep um, things from getting worse. No harm done fortunately.
Forgot to add, his stick was caught down the front of my pants.
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>Or there was the time the blade of an opposing players stick got
>caught in my hockey pants.
that's a good way to acquire the nickname, "moony"!
!!
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>Or there was the time the blade of an opposing players stick got >caught in my hockey pants.
that's a good way to acquire the nickname, "moony"!
!!
My SO was at the game. She ran down to check to see if the family jewels were still okay.
Jeebuz, we got the puns going today.
As much as we beat on each other in Ice Hockey, pretty much no one wants anyone to be hurt - and if the family jewels are involved, then the wives and girlfriends will be after ya. They're sensitive about that kind of stuff. Happy New Years to ya!
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Yeah to be clear I was actually not expecting that result when I looked it up because I heard the leather helmet thing too and thought it was a good idea.
Now curious from your post I looked up hockey vs football and it's a little muddles as some studies seem to point to hockey as worse but the majority of what I found do in fact point to football as worse, which does make sense as while you do have helmet to helmet contact in hockey it's generally something to avoid where in football it's somewhat expected.
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Maybe it's time we had a rethink on sports.
We understand the risks a lot better now. We probably need to think about new divisions too, since it's clear that biological sex is not as clear cut as had been assumed.
We could invent some new sports.
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I really do enjoy when ESPN does "The Ocho" for a day and showcases all those niche skill comps and sports.
Should just make a dedicated channel for it.
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As far as US football goes IMHO Mike Ditka of people was right about helmets and concussions: the more advanced helmets get the harder players learn to hit with their heads. Make the helmets 30x more concussion resistant and players will learn to hit things [1] 35x harder. Ditka advocated going back to leather earflap helmets to reduce concussions and while it was said in a "back in the day we were real men" mode I'm not sure he was wrong about that.
[1] yeah, I know, there are rules changes in place to prohibit direct hits with the top of the head. We'll see how that works in the long run [prediction: it won't]
It's all about what the deterrence is.
If the deterrence is getting your own noggin hurt then yeah, a better helmet means you'll increase the force you deliver.
But if the deterrence is a penalty for a hit to the head then they're already trying to decrease the force of the hit well below the injury point, and the helmets could make a huge difference.
For comparison look at slashing in hockey. Broken bones were not unheard of [espn.com]. But then penalties increased, as did suspensions, as did protection from equipment.
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Make the helmets 30x more concussion resistant and players will learn to hit things [1] 35x harder.
No, 35x would pile drive a head deep into the body or snap the neck clean off.
I believe they're already routinely coming within a factor of 2 of the theoretical maximum.
There's no way a helmet like this - if it works - is a bad thing.
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As far as US football goes IMHO Mike Ditka of people was right about helmets and concussions: the more advanced helmets get the harder players learn to hit with their heads. Make the helmets 30x more concussion resistant and players will learn to hit things [1] 35x harder. Ditka advocated going back to leather earflap helmets to reduce concussions and while it was said in a "back in the day we were real men" mode I'm not sure he was wrong about that.
[1] yeah, I know, there are rules changes in place to prohibit direct hits with the top of the head. We'll see how that works in the long run [prediction: it won't]
It's called Risk Compensation and is observed a lot with vehicles, as cars became safer people started driving more recklessly believing they wouldn't be harmed. Fortunately things like seatbelts and ABS really were that much safer that the reduction to risk was much more than the compensation. We're not seeing the same thing with newer safety measures like AEB, lane assist and countries are seeing their road tolls increasing because people are paying less attention to the road. [wikipedia.org]
Not the only problem (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: Not the only problem (Score:2)
Yeh, but as the article mentions, existing materials are good at dealing with the simple compression case. The sheer case is the one where we donâ(TM)t have a good material.
Vertically aligned nanotube arrays? (Score:2, Interesting)
I'm trying to decide whether vantablack [wikipedia.org] helmets would be cool or problematic.
(Yes, I know this article is about the padding inside, not the paint outside.)
Misleading reporting of another paywalled paper. (Score:5, Informative)
Two points to ponder:
1 - Title is misleading. Finding a way to make a better helmet is a worthy impetus for doing this study, but they did not study helmets. They studied the foam for its quasi-static mechanical properties, showing that its properties, shear compliance under compressive loads, is improved over current urethane foams. That therefore addresses one of the shortcomings of materials in current protective equipment, so the carbon nanotube foams would be worth considering to make safer equipment. A worthy and righteous experiment to be sure. But, they did not study helmets, and they did not even study the foam under dynamic loads, so conclusions are just inferential and hopeful - not real world progress.
I assume they studied this on simple foam blocks in a mechanical testing frame, but I cannot be sure because the article is behind a paywall, which brings us to ...
2 - The study was funded by "U.S. Office of Naval Research under PANTHER award number N000142112044 and N000142112916." As publicly funded research, this should open and accessible to all. I understand the challenges that the conventional scientific publishing industry is having in the modern digital age, but, times are tough and changes are needed. The idea that publicly funded research should be open has become a major argument in favor of free access for such works - and I agree.
What are your thoughts?
When does the... (Score:1)
Clickbait (Score:2)
Nest uo... (Score:2)
... active foam.
"near initial state " (Score:2)
But how is the concussion rate affected? (Score:2)
The article headline says, "Novel helmet liner 30 times better at stopping concussions." The actual paper is paywalled, but the online abstract and summary don't mention the number 30. The article summary mentions, "30 times higher energy dissipation in shear." That increased energy dissipation is good, but the relationship between energy dissipation and the concussion rate is likely nonlinear. The only way to discover this relationship is in deployment, as a controlled study would be unethical. It wou
Terrible Headline (Score:2)
I may be misunderstanding, I'm not an expert here, and this is the articles headline too, but:
It seems to me that "30x better at absorbing impact" != "30x better at preventing concussions".
The helmet won't make you suddenly stop more slowly. A lot of concussions happen because you rapidly stop, and your brain pretty literally is stuck rattling around in your skull. The helmet absorbing more won't automatically be proportionally better at stopping concussions overall.
The researchers seem to pretty carefully
Headline is false (Score:2)
The study found that the new material "absorbed the kinetic energy caused by an impact almost 30 times better than liners currently used in US military helmets." This is a lot different from being "30 times better at preventing concussions." To make that claim, it would be necessary to test the material in actual helmets and observe the number of concussions that occur, compared with helmet-wearers using the old material.
There are a lot of factors that lead to concussions that might lie outside the amount o
Head impacts lead to dementia (Score:2)
All sports with repeated head impact lead to dementia. Soccer from heading, though there are some collision concussions. Check out the health conditions of the English World Cup team members. Its a big deal in soccer. Then Rugby, lots of cases there from collisions. Boxing of course, the punch drunk syndrome. Football. Ice hockey.
Both rugby and soccer have developed increased risks recently for different reasons. Soccer because the lighter and drier ball has led to more heading, and because in the p
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