{"id":52880,"date":"2019-01-11T16:10:45","date_gmt":"2019-01-11T21:10:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsroom.carleton.ca\/?post_type=cu_story&p=52880"},"modified":"2025-09-30T13:55:55","modified_gmt":"2025-09-30T17:55:55","slug":"helmet-testing-future","status":"publish","type":"cu_story","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/story\/helmet-testing-future\/","title":{"rendered":"The Future of Helmet Testing and Design"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n The Future of Helmet Testing and Design\n <\/h1>\n \n <\/header>\n <\/div>\n\n \n <\/path>\n <\/path>\n <\/svg>\n <\/div>\n\n \n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n

Although the athletic and medical communities have become increasingly aware about the dangers of concussions and other brain injuries over the past few years, we still don\u2019t have a precise picture of what happens inside our heads and helmets when they experience a significant impact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Carleton University\u2019s Oren Petel, a professor in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering<\/a>, has been working to address this problem since having a eureka moment as a PhD student in 2010.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His efforts<\/a> are poised to revolutionize helmet testing and design and, at the same time, deepen our understanding of how brain tissue responds to acceleration and contact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With crucial contributions from his Impact Dynamics Research<\/a> Group, Petel has developed a system that, to the best of his knowledge, is the world\u2019s fastest lab-based continuous X-ray machine other than synchrotron particle accelerators such as the Canadian Light Source in Saskatoon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
From left to right: Sheng Xu, Karen Taylor, Oren Petel, Ashley Mazurkiewicz, Scott Dutrisac and MacKenzie Brannen.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Set up in a small room on the sixth floor of Carleton\u2019s Canal Building, Petel\u2019s system includes a pneumatically driven linear impactor capable of ram speeds ranging from one to a dozen metres a second, a couple of different headforms that can be fitted with helmets, and an X-ray camera that typically captures 7,500 frames a second but can reach up to 100,000 in that time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These series of images are used to create an X-ray video that shows with incredible detail how helmets and the replica brains inside the headform are affected by impact. The videos show both internal strain on the brain and interaction between head and helmet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe think this is the future of helmet testing,\u201d says Petel, who submitted a patent application for the X-ray system and testing methodology. \u201cCurrent approaches are primarily concerned with the kinematics of the head, but they don\u2019t allow us to physically see what is or isn\u2019t working in the helmet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWith this approach, we can see how the components of the helmet deform and engage with the head. We can also see internal strain and deformation of the replica brain, essentially the force that is transferred to the head. It\u2019s next-level information that can be used to validate the computer models used in helmet design.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur intent was always to develop new tools for the evaluation of helmet performance and head injury, and we\u2019re all really excited about where this research will lead.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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Exploring New Tools to Evaluate
\nHelmet Performance and Design<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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Petel, who has been at Carleton since 2013, was born and raised in Montreal. Naturally, he was a Habs fan, and started playing hockey at age three.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He still laces up his blades in a recreational league on campus, and one of his young daughters has started to play hockey as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like so many Canadians, he noted the number of NHL stars whose careers \u2014 and, in some cases, lives \u2014 were cut short by concussions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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