Abstract:
Head injuries are prevalent outcomes of accidents and can result in severe, life-altering
conditions, including brain damage and cognitive impairment. Helmets play a crucial role in
reducing the risk of head trauma by absorbing impact forces and protecting the skull. This study
focuses on the material and design aspects of nature-inspired helmet to analyze head impacts
using the Finite Element Method (FEM). The primary objective is to employ finite element
analysis (FEA) to model head impacts and evaluate stress patterns on the human head when
protected by a mechanically enhanced helmet. The research aims to establish the differences in
impact responses between a proposed helmet, conventional helmet and headform model.
As of methodology properties of organic structures that are known to possess hyper-elasticity,
high degrees of tensile strength and the ability to absorb shock has been utilized. By drawing
inspiration from the human spinal column, renowned for its compressive load-bearing capacity,
and the woodpecker's skull, the helmet design utilized in this study is both novel and unique.
In this research, these organic characteristics are compared with the classical synthetic helmet
materials in the hope of finding better candidates that may enhance the protection mechanism.
This leads to incorporating advanced materials and biomechanical research methods to evaluate
the effectiveness of these materials in realistic stress tests that mimic impacts observed in realtime life conditions.
The findings of this research could lead to significant advancements in helmet design through
the integration of bio-inspired materials and analysis, ultimately reducing head injuries in
sports, transportation, and other fields prone to such trauma.
