In this poster presentation, it is stated that accident databases and medical literature have documented injuries to the cervical spine of individuals participating in water sports. In the interest of reducing the injury frequency, the question of requiring the participants to wear some type of helmet has been raised. An experimental testing programme has been implemented whose focus was to quantify the loading implications on the cervical spine of a head form with and without a helmet entering the water surface. The test procedure included head entry at both zero and non-zero yaw angles. Using an instrumented Hybrid III Anthropomorphic Test Dummy (ATD) and 50% head form, time histories were collected for the three moment and force components experienced at lower and upper neck locations as functions of forward speed, yaw angle, and immersion depth. This procedure was performed for a bare head, a head fitted with an open face helmet, and a head fitted with a full-face helmet. Results are included. Data collected during the testing can then be used for estimation of the hydrodynamic load applied to an analytical representation of a human biofidelic model (MADYMO) during water entry simulation. It is explained that the primary limitation of this study is the modelling of hydrodynamic loading. Research is being performed to improve this modelling.
Abstract