Comparative analysis of Hybrid III neckform and an unbiased neckform

Abstract

Helmet design and development are an important tool to help mitigate the severity and frequency of head and brain injury in sport and everyday life. Helmet assessment protocols and standards often use the Hybrid III neckform as part of the impacting equipment even though it has a biased response that can affect the results. This research presents an unbiased neckform that can be used for the purposes of head impact testing that does not provide a mechanical directional bias to the impact result. A Hybrid III headform was impacted under a sporting impact protocol with a Hybrid III and an unbiased neckform. The resultant acceleration magnitudes were similar between the two necks, while larger differences (8 g and up to 4 krad/s2) were found between the acceleration components. The Hybrid III neck may have a more biased response for longer duration events (10 ms+) as this research considered only short duration impacts (5–10 ms).