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news
Supercomputer (CC BY 2.0 licenced by NASA Goddard Space Flight Center:Flickr)Boffins turn to supercomputers to design a better helmet
Unimpressed with standard bike helmets, academics from Cardiff University are using supercomputer technology to try and design a better skidlid.
Dr. Peter Theobald and Dr. Philip Martin of the School of Engineering at Cardiff are researching ways that 3D printing can be used to make ultra-lightweight customised helmets that better absorb impacts.
“It is scary how similar traditional bicycle safety helmets on the market actually are,” said Dr Martin. “If you went into a helmet shop with an unlimited sum of money, you would come out with essentially the same thing, in regards to safety, as there is no superior product.
"The only real differences are in shape, colour and design – merely aesthetics. Everything is made out of polystyrene, which fails to offer adequate protection during ‘oblique’ impacts.”
To find out what other materials could be used,the researchers are using supercomputing to optimise the mechanical structures of 3D printed bicycle safety helmet designs, comparing the effects of different designs and 3D printed materials on impact performance.
A focus of the research is protecting the head against rotational impacts. Recent research suggests that standard helmets provide little or no protection against rotational forces, which are a source of the intra-cranial bleeding that characterises the most serious head injuries.
To help prevent such injuries, the researchers are trying to design a helmet that will slow or stop transfer of energy to the head. Allowing the brain and the skull to keep moving, and being slowed down in tandem, is believed to reduce the risk of brain injuries after collisions.
They hope that their research will lead to improved helmet standards that address rotational impacts as well as the direct impacts taken into account in current guidelines.
Dr Martin and Dr Theobald are being supported by the High Performance Computing Wales’ Research and Innovation fund and say that without advanced supercomputing power their research would be impractically expensive and time-consuming.
Dr Martin said: "Without these supercomputing capabilities, we would have to physically manufacture every new structural design, and then test every single one of them in a lab, to evaluate their impact safety performance potential. This would be both extremely time and cost intensive, rendering the project unfeasible."
Let's hope that what they come up with looks better than the Smart Hat we reported yesterday.
John has been writing about bikes and cycling for over 30 years since discovering that people were mug enough to pay him for it rather than expecting him to do an honest day's work.
He was heavily involved in the mountain bike boom of the late 1980s as a racer, team manager and race promoter, and that led to writing for Mountain Biking UK magazine shortly after its inception. He got the gig by phoning up the editor and telling him the magazine was rubbish and he could do better. Rather than telling him to get lost, MBUK editor Tym Manley called John’s bluff and the rest is history.
Since then he has worked on MTB Pro magazine and was editor of Maximum Mountain Bike and Australian Mountain Bike magazines, before switching to the web in 2000 to work for CyclingNews.com. Along with road.cc founder Tony Farrelly, John was on the launch team for BikeRadar.com and subsequently became editor in chief of Future Publishing’s group of cycling magazines and websites, including Cycling Plus, MBUK, What Mountain Bike and Procycling.
John has also written for Cyclist magazine, edited the BikeMagic website and was founding editor of TotalWomensCycling.com before handing over to someone far more representative of the site's main audience.
He joined road.cc in 2013. He lives in Cambridge where the lack of hills is more than made up for by the headwinds.
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18 comments
Rotational injuries ... impact injuries ... whatever.
Despite 20-odd years of mandatory helmet-wearing in Australia and NZ there is not one scintilla of evidence that they have had any effect whatsoever in reducing injuries or deaths.
No evidence at all. The only measurable effect of those laws has been to make cycling 30% less popular as a means of transport than it was before.
Bizarrely, even the reduction in cycling has not reduced deaths and injuries either.
At what point in Australia and NZ might the politicians actually admit that they might be wrong?
The importance of rotation in brain injuries has been ignored for too long possibly to save embarrasment to authorities.
In Australia the government was asked why they hadnt included testing for rotation and couldnt really give an answer. Its in the too hard basket when your helmet testing is based on the false assumption its impact alone that matters.
In the early days of motorbike helmet research it was noted that the hard shells, coupled with the interior slings and hatbands of the helmets of the time contributed to reducing the rotation of the brain.
How long ago was that? The research was brought on by the motorcycle death of none other than T.E. Lawrence (of Arabia)!
Its of more importance than we realise. Think of the difference between the direct head blow which causes one to see stars but does no damage and the slight knock to the jaw which rotates the skull and causes a knockout. Boxers have always known about this and develop neck strength to reduce it and often grow stubble to reduce the friction from a hit to the jaw. Perhaps this is a function of head and jaw hair we havent thought too much about.
Getting back to helmets, I have a MIPS helmet, designed to reduce rotation to some extent, but which is not certified for Australia. I can actually be booked for wearing one!
Many helmets are out there that exacerbate rotation such as bare foam which sticks quite well to the surface one hits. The day I was booked $160 for no helmet, the fellow ahead of me was wearing one and was let through.
These are things authorities need to get right before they impose standards.
I'm all for this kind of research. If product design can be improved that can only be a good thing.
The fact that there is no mention in the article about comfort or ventilation gives rise to some reservations. These are highly important factors in helmet design and I wonder what consideration has been given to them. Safer, on it's own, is not necesarily better.
Ah that would be the "emporor's new clothes" helmet then. Lightest weight and finest materials. Brilliant although I thought this one that he wore at the Tour of Britain preview looked almost as good if you see what I mean. You can see it can't you?
chris_boardman_portrait.png
As usual UCI rules have prevented Chris from using the latest developments of "invisible helmet" technology in the TdeB.
And the "best helmet" supercomputer design results are just out and are shown here being modelled by Chris Boardman.
Boardman_2.jpg
There is absolutely no scientific proof that wearing a supercomputer on your head will prevent accidents or injurys - it is complete and utter twaddle
The art of unintended self parody lives on!
[PS it's "injuries" btw]
There is absolutely no proof whatsoever that spelling prevents accidents or injurys - it is complete and utter twaddle
surely the answer is a full face motorcycle helmet if your looking at protection?
Some of you fellers can't leave it alone can you? Heaven forbid that quite a number of your own community have a different view to the OFs.
Not "merely aesthetics". There's a huge difference in ventilation between cheap and expensive helmets. Comfort plays a big role in choosing a helmet. I would not want to wear a cheap helmet on a 200km ride or in a 3+ hour road race.
Maybe after this they could do something really useful, like use the supercomputer to design safe and suitable infrastructure.
Good to know that of all the problems amenable to solution by using a supercomputer, we're now at the point where we should be concentrating on new hats for cyclists.
I managed to get a leaked photo of the first renders:
http://www.501st.com/crl/TK_CRL/124_Stormtrooper_S_ANH/124_23.jpg
I'd rather wear that than the smart-hat, it looks like it may even have a decent pollution filter built in!
The first modelling results are out already. Looks promising.
http://www.smarthat.info/
Was just going to say that yesterday's Aussie 'smart hat' had nailed it, no need to bother.