In the 2017 NFL football season, 291 players sustained a concussion. The goal of this project was to create a neck support for football players to reduce linear and rotational acceleration of the head, since these accelerations have been shown to lead to concussions. The prototype neck support was designed to be comfortable, unobtrusive, attach directly to the shoulder pads, and absorb as much impact energy as possible. To test the neck brace, a pendulum impact tester and a test dummy were designed to replicate the size, weight, and impact force of a football player experiencing collisions to the head. Preliminary analysis of the data showed a reduction in linear acceleration of the head by up to 30% during head on impacts to the face mask, but did not reduce rotational acceleration.

• 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

• Merchant, Blayne Patrick
• Gillis, Sean Peter
• Bellion, Zachary Thomas
• Lubega, Francis Paul
• Saunders, Collin Richard

Publisher

• Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Identifier

• E-project-042419-154916

Advisor

• Levey, Fiona

Year

• 2019

Date created

• 2019-04-24

Resource type

• Major Qualifying Project

Major

• Mechanical Engineering

Rights statement

• In Copyright