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John Varrasi is a senior faculty writer for the American Society of Mechanical Engineers ( ASME ) . He contributed this clause to Live Science’sExpert Voices : Op - Ed & Insights .
As a new field hockey season dawns , mount concerns about concussions are inspiring Virginia Tech researchers to evaluate the athletics ’s helmets for safety equipment and strength . The tests involve implant sensors , real - world conditions in an ice-skating rink skating rink and controlled impingement in a testing ground . And the research will lead to specific ratings for a variety of helmet example and brands , especially concerning their potential to reduceconcussion endangerment .
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" Part of the strategy to trim down the relative incidence of concussions at all level of militant hockey involves advance in head protection , " said Steven Rowson , helper professor of biomedical engineering at Virginia Tech . " The aim of our research is to identify helmets that establish the strong electric potential to minimize the peril of on - glass concussions . "
An epidemic
A sports concussion occur when the headspring is accelerated during an impact , make different comparative motions in the brain and skull and causing pressure to work up up inside the skull that strains the brain tissue .
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concussion in football have garnered the most public tending , and two years ago , the Virginia Tech Biomedical Engineering Department developed a successful valuation organization for football helmets . However , in the last 10 to 15 yr , there has been an alarming increase in the number of concussions suffered by professional , collegiate and youth hockey game players . Eighty National Hockey League ( NHL ) role player sustained concussion in the 2010 to 2011 season , compared to 60 in the 1997 to 1998 season . Concussions have occur in players ranging from former superstar Eric Lindros , who skate for the Philadelphia Flyers in the 1980s and 1990s , to lesser - known NHL master who have wreak smaller roles on team . Former NHL players have register six concussion - have-to doe with lawsuits in U.S. courts , with many more expected in the near time to come . [ prevent Concussions is About Care , Not indulge ( Op - Ed ) ]
Concussions in younker hockey are difficult to guess , primarily because reliable aesculapian assessment generally are not performed at young person hockey game , and also because peewee and high - school role player oftentimes neglect to cover dizziness and other concussion symptom to coaches and parents . But experts contend that many concussions do occur in youth field hockey ; a late article in the Journal of Sports Engineering and Technology mentioned that a sampling of 13 - yr - old manly and distaff hockey instrumentalist suffer straits impact adequate in magnitude to measured values occurring in American collegial football player .
How to examine hockey helmet
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Rowson , an ASME member , suppose his research will improve safety . He and his colleagues have develop laboratory examination - conditions that are representative of genuine - world pass impacts . The researcher will also take up on research pile up at Brown University and Dartmouth College , which have placed legal instrument in ice hockey helmets to collect head - impact datum forthwith from players . In increase , Rowson and his squad rented a hockey rink in Roanoke , Virginia , to practice in identify how a rink ’s sideboards , glassful and ice create different oral sex hit .
" Together , these studies inform our testing method , enabling us to reconstruct real - world head impingement , " said Rowson .
In some of the examination , a custom - designed impact pendulum will emulate on - ice impact by striking a " head " form outfit with accelerometers and angulate - rate detector . The testing puts each helmet through a variety of impacts , which differ in impact location ( front , rearward , side and top ) and impact speed . The sensors appraise linear as well as rotational head acceleration , which is critical for determining concussion risk of infection .
The testing organization allow researchers to model the various ways in which the force of an impact transfers from the helmet to the head . " hockey game helmets modulate energy transfer to the head during impact in a salmagundi of configurations , " he say . " Our testing methodology enables us to maphead impactexposure to specific energy levels and shock location on the helmet . "
The resulting data is showing researchers how often thespian experience various head impacts , and the chance of injury from a hold amount of head acceleration . The information will revealthe likeliness of a concussionfor a image of impacts in a given helmet , and an overall prognostication for the number of concussions a player might experience over a full hockey season while wear out a given helmet .
Getting manufacturers to step up
While some in sports music usher out the part of improve helmet designs in reduce concussion in hockey and other competitive sports , Rowson say he hard believes that new headdress can be a blueprint for less brainiac damage .
Football helmet manufacturers , which place Virginia Tech ’s ratings on their ware , seem to be purchase in to Rowson ’s assessment . For example , sports equipment manufacturer Riddell has introduced a football game helmet featuring an exterior panel that can move slightly inward to absorb hit to the crown of the head , essentially dispersing zip from a blow .
" It is a challenge for manufacturer to optimize helmet figure , because you must calculate for so many unlike impact scenario , " said Rowson . " While we are not specifically telling manufacturers how to revise their designs , we do believe that the quest to get a helmet that lower question acceleration — and as a result , reduces the endangerment of concussion — should not be abandoned . We want to supply sporting good manufacturers with a Seth of public presentation criteria for helmets that can be used to decoct the probability of concussion . "
