Concussions are a prominent issue within most sports. Our project focuses on creating a catcher's helmet that will reduce head injuries and keep athletes safe. Our design replaces the foam used in current helmets with nonlinear springs attached to the face cage as well as nonlinear springs within the helmet itself. These changes allow for greater displacement of the impact on the helmet, and therefore by the work-energy theorem, greater force is absorbed by the helmet as opposed to the athlete’s head. On the exterior of the helmet, we explored different materials of the shell and coatings that would reduce the overall weight and torsional forces. This helmet is promising for reducing head injuries and keeping athletes safe, without impacting performance.

• This report represents the work of one or more WPI undergraduate students submitted to the faculty as evidence of completion of a degree requirement. WPI routinely publishes these reports on its website without editorial or peer review.

Creator

• Lindner, Austin
• Rives, Douglas
• Herlands, Joshua Mitchell

Publisher

• Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Identifier

• E-project-042519-144301

Advisor

• Brown, Christopher A.

Year

• 2019

Date created

• 2019-04-25

Resource type

• Major Qualifying Project

Major

• Mechanical Engineering

Rights statement

• In Copyright