Numerical simulations of motorcycle helmet impact tests

Abstract

The main objective of this study was to simulate experimental impact tests on a commercially available motorcycle helmet and to develop a virtual design tool. The mechanical properties of the shell and the foam liner of the helmet were estimated from existing material data taken from the open literature. The material data were adjusted to match the temperature conditioning of each impact test condition. All computational impact tests were performed using the explicit finite element code LS-DYNA3D with appropriate foam and composite material models. The European standards, ECE Regulation 22.05, were adopted in both experimental and numerical tests. The results demonstrate the possibility of accurately simulating the various types of standard impact tests, thus introducing the real possibility of using virtual testing techniques in the helmet design process, e.g. for motorbike helmets, and other helmet configurations.