ASSESSING MOTORCYCLE CRASH-RELATED HEAD INJURIES USING FINITE ELEMENT SIMULATIONS

Motorcycle crash-related fatalities and injuries have a relatively increasing tendency compared to other vehicles. The new development of safety devices and technologies for prediction of their behaviour are therefore also increasingly important. Motorcycles have the least amount of protective devices amongst vehicles. A small disturbance in the motion of motorcycles can expose the riders to severe impacts leading to injuries especially in the appendicular part of the body, but the severest injury is usually to the head. Head injuries are the most common cause of death amongst motorcyclists (approximately 45 %). Thus, naturally, the main protective equipment preventing motorcyclists from fatal injuries is the helmet. In this study, detailed finite element models of helmet and human head are used to simulate and analyse the impacts on a protected and unprotected head in a scenario typical for motorcycle-related collisions. (Received in February 2010, accepted in April 2010. This paper was with the authors 1 month for 1 revision.)