Biomechanical engineer and UCLA professor Vijay Gupta has developed a new polymer which may notably increase football helmets’ ability to protect players from concussions without requiring any major redesign efforts.
Gupta, originally from India, developed a passion for American football while living with fellow sports fans during his years as a graduate student at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). After he began working as a professor, he wanted to use his expertise in materials science, mechanical engineering and bioengineering to help protect the brain from the forces that cause concussions and traumatic brain injury. Gupta has created a polymer that can effectively diminish the force of helmet-to-helmet hits on the football field, as well as blast shockwaves from explosive devices in combat.
New Polymer Passes Tests, Easy to Retrofit
Gupta began his research by building off of previously published research about TBI from the 1960s and, more recently, a concussion study sponsored by the NFL. Taking into account the size (weight) of football players and measuring how fast they were running, Gupta’s researchers were able calculate the G-force produced at the point of impact, thus effectively establishing a concussion probability curve.
Gupta explains of high-impact collisions, “Above 90 Gs, you have an almost 90 percent probability of a concussion.”
He then added a 2-millimeter-thick “wafer” (about the thickness of a nickel) of a firm, yet flexible polymer he devised to reinforce the helmet’s foam padding. Gupta’s team then tested the amount of force transmitted through the helmet (to a player’s head) using a specialized hammering machine that drops a weight on top of the helmet to generate pre-determined levels of G-force. The forces that would be transmitted to a player’s brain are then recorded by sensors within the device.
Gupta’s team has experimented with different blends of the polymer to alter its rigidity and varied the precise placement of polymer inserts in different areas within the helmet. Gupta and his team have discovered a configuration capable of reducing the amount of force transmitted to the player’s brain by 25 percent. This translates to a proportionate reduction in the probability of experiencing a concussion.
“This is a remarkable reduction given that we are adding such a small amount of material that essentially leaves the current helmet unaltered,” Gupta remarked. “If the helmet is altered too much, the concern is that it might affect how players are forced to play and they might not want to wear it.”
Existing football helmets could be easily retrofitted with a few small, strategically placed polymer inserts. The thickness would not affect the feel of existing helmets or make them feel too tight.
Polymer has Military Origins, Potential
Gupta began his work on the polymer for the US Navy about eight years ago. The material needed to bond steel with another type of composite material, but was discovered to withstand immense blast waves produced by sea mines and torpedoes. It was then that Gupta realized the shock absorbing potential of his polymer for several different applications.
In addition to potential near-term applications of the polymer in football helmets, Gupta thinks adding polymer inserts to the Kevlar helmets worn by the military could effectively diminish the forces of blast waves transmitted through the brain by explosions, thus greatly reducing the severity of traumatic brain injuries experienced by close proximity to bombs and improvised explosive devices (IEDs). Gupta has been able to replicate the shockwaves of such blasts using a special laser testing device and is working to present his results and recommendations for placement of the polymer in military helmets in upcoming months.
References:
UCLA Today
