The Dynamic Impact Response of a Hybrid III Head- and Neckform under Four Neck Orientations and Three Impact Locations

Abstract

Head injuries are sensitive to impact direction and are relative to the magnitude of linear (g) and rotational (rad/s2) accelerations (Holbourn, 1943; Kleiven, 2003). This study documented the influence of the Hybrid III headform's geometry and neckform's physical characteristics on the dynamic impact response of the Hybrid III headform at different impact locations. A Hybrid III head- and neckform was impacted by a linear impactor at 4.2m/s to the front, side and rear locations through the center of gravity. To isolate physical characteristic of the neck on the headform's dynamic impact response, the neck's orientation was positioned about the z (vertical) axis. Impact location was found to be significantly different across all neck orientations for peak resultant linear (F(2,107)=65.295, p<0.001) and rotational (F(2,107)=202.822, p<0.001) acceleration. Neck orientation was found to not be significant for peak resultant linear (F(3,107)=0.560, p=0.642) and rotational (F(3,107)=0.169, p=0.917) accelerations. Understanding the interaction of impact location and neckform characteristics is important for interpreting direct head impact reconstructions using the Hybrid III head- and neckform.