Development of a simple motorcyclist helmet finite element model

Abstract

Motorcycle riders belong to the group of so-called vulnerable road users, for whom protection against an impact is an important issue due to the multi-directional loading and the complex kinematics after the impact. Virtual biomechanical human body models play an important role to assess injuries, especially for such complex scenarios. The major motorcycle riders' personal protective equipment is the helmet. Several authors developed their own helmet model taking into account various helmet details. The presented work concerns a simple finite element helmet model development and validation according to the ECE Regulation 22.05. The helmet is validated in several impact scenarios coupling the headform impactor to the helmet and throwing it to the defined anvils. The advantage of the developed helmet is the low calculation time step by fulfilling the regulation. It can be coupled to the human body model easily without decreasing the global calculation time step.