Hydrophilic porous materials as helmet padding able to prevent traumatic brain injuries

Abstract

The ideal way to reduce the likelihood of traumatic brain injuries for a player engaged in an impact sport such as football or hockey, as a result of an impact of his/her helmet with a surface or another player, would be to reduce the average value of the acceleration of the player's head in an impact as much as possible. The minimum possible value of the average deceleration of the head is inversely proportional to the helmet padding thickness. Since there are practical limits to its maximum thickness, it is difficult to significantly reduce the average acceleration. There is evidence, however, that the peak, rather than the average, acceleration is the most significant cause of brain injury. It is proposed here that brain injuries, that occur as a result of an impact, could be reduced by using as padding a hydrophilic porous material swollen with fluid. The friction experienced by the fluid as it is squeezed out of the porous material in an impact can “tune” the acceleration of the skull so that it is never significantly higher than its average value during the impact.