Development of a head impact protection device

• Autor(a) principal: Varela, Luís Miguel Matos
• Data de Publicação: 2018
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10773/26819
• topic: Headband; Energy absorption; Material characterization; Brain; Cork; Impact; Sport; Brain injury; Cellular materials; Natural materials; Protective equipment; Numerical simulation

Nowadays, the number of people that practise team sports involving physical contact has increased. For sports where the use of head protective equipment is not mandatory, some sportsmen use headbands to feel safer. In the market, there are several solutions for this purpose made by synthetic foams that guarantee a level of protection proportional to its mechanical properties. Cork is a natural cellular material capable of absorbing amounts of energy. These characteristics make this material ideal for certain applications such as impact protection. In this work, the cork agglomerate with the best density and properties to incorporate into a protective headband is studied. With this goal, 3 headbands at the market were used in order to conclude on which level the cork was comparing to their foams. Finally, a headband model was created. After being validated, its material was varied and, for each one, the risk of injury was analysed. The results of these analysis showed that the selected agglomerated cork can have the same and, in some situations, better performance than the foams found in these reference devices.