Protective capacity of an ice hockey goaltender helmet for three events associated with concussion

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to assess the protective capacity of an ice hockey goaltender helmet for three concussive impact events. A helmeted and unhelmeted headform was used to test three common impact events in ice hockey (fall, puck impacts and shoulder collisions). Peak linear acceleration, rotational acceleration and rotational velocity as well as maximum principal strain and von Mises stress were measured for each impact condition. The results demonstrated the tested ice hockey goaltender helmet was well designed to manage fall and puck impacts but does not consistently protect against shoulder collisions and an opportunity may exist to improve helmet designs to better protect goaltenders from shoulder collisions.

Keywords:

• Brain injury
• impact biomechanics
• dynamic response
• finite element modeling
• brain tissue response

Acknowledgements

Funding for this research was received form the Ontario Graduate Scholarship in Science and Technology (to J.M.C). Ice hockey goaltender helmets were supplied by Reebok-CCM. The University of Ottawa holds research agreements for testing and development of ice hockey goaltender helmets with Reebok-CCM. The authors (J.M.C and M. D. G.) also acknowledge current funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skiodowska-Curie grant agreement No. 642,662.