The key challenge for us is to come up with a material that can be optimised for a range of different types of impacts.
- Graham McShane
Researchers from Cambridge and Cardiff Universities are developing an origami-like material that could help prevent brain injuries in sport, as part of a programme sponsored in part by American football’s National Football League (NFL).
A number of universities and commercial companies are taking part in the NFL’s Head Health Challenge, which, as one of its goals, aims to develop the next generation of advanced materials for use in helmets and other types of body protection, for sport, military and other applications.
The Cambridge and Cardiff team are working in collaboration with helmet designer and manufacturer Charles Owen Inc, with funding support from the NFL, GE Healthcare, Under Armour and the National Institute of Standards and Technology, to develop and test their material over the next 12 months.
The Head Health Challenge competition is a $20 million collaborative project to develop new and innovative technologies in order to improve early-stage detection of mild traumatic brain injuries and to improve brain protection. The five-year collaboration is aiming to improve the safety of athletes, members of the military and society overall.
“The key challenge for us is to come up with a material that can be optimised for a range of different types of impacts,” said Dr Graham McShane of Cambridge’s Department of Engineering, who is part of the team behind the material. “A direct impact is different than an oblique impact, so the ideal material will behave and deform accordingly, depending on how it’s been hit – what we are looking at is the relationship between the material, geometry and the force of impact.”
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Image:Eddie Lacy (cropped)
Credit: Elvis Kennedy
Reproduced courtesy of the University of Cambridge
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