2013 International Conference on Mechanical and Automation Engineering

Study on Impact Energy Absorbing Performance of EPS

Buffer Layer of Motorcycle Helmet

WEN Wei-cai1 FU Dong-ming3

School of Design and Arts, Beijing Institute of Jiangmen Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau,
Technology Beijing, Jiangmen, China
Beijing, China
Stonewencui@[Link]

LI Yuan-xin2
School of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering,
Wuyi University
Jiangmen, China

Abstract—EPS buffer layer of Motorcycle helmet is significant researchers, such as the physic-chemical and mechanical
for protecting the head, experiments were conducted in order to properties of EPS, and mainly included the study of the stress -
obtain the impact energy absorbing characteristics of EPS buffer strain relationship, compression deformation behavior and
layers which were designed to have different densities; According creep properties of EPS [5-8]. According to the foamed plastic
to the analysis of the test results, mechanical behavior of EPS energy absorption theory, Document 9 discussed the uniaxial
cushioning material was discussed; and the influence law of compression performance and selecting method of density of
material density to collision energy absorption characteristics of the EPS material in cushion packaging design. Document 10
EPS material was analyzed specifically. The results showed that
researches the pilot helmet hard liner materials from the
dual density EPS buffer layer design of the top of the helmet can
molding process and wearing comfort, proposing using semi-
effectively reduce the peak acceleration of collision to about
200G; The density of EPS material can be properly designed
rigid self-skinning polyurethane foam to completely replace
based on the relationship of stress and collision energy absorption traditional polystyrene foam as helmet hard lining, and have the
rate, and thereby collision energy absorbing characteristics of the same crash performance and penetration resistance
EPS buffer layer is better. When the EPS density was chosen to performance when they have same thickness and density.
be 0.06g/cm3, its collision energy absorption of buffer layer Given all that, much more research on the EPS material
approach the best effect. mechanical properties and its applications in the field of
geotechnical engineering has been done at home and abroad.
Keywords- Metrology; EPS buffer layer; Energy absorption; However, correlative study on performance of EPS buffer layer
Density; Damage criterion; ECE 22.05; Experiment study used on motorcycle helmets is relatively rare. This paper
studied the collision energy absorption of EPS buffer layer of
I. INTRODUCTION motorcycle helmets based on the crash test on helmet impact
stable. At first, the three-dimensional model of an off-road
Motorcycle traffic accident data have been shown that more motorcycle helmet was established, and helmets samples with
than 70% of casualties were caused by head injury [1-4]. Head different densities of EPS buffer layer were produced.
injury is closely related to motorcyclist’s poor legal awareness According to the requirements of European standards
of wearing helmet and poor quality of helmets. The collision ECE22.05, related collision tests of motorcycle helmet were
energy absorbing performance is an important performance conducted, and based on the analysis of the test results,
requirement for the quality testing of the motorcycle helmet, analyzing the influence law of helmet EPS buffer layer density
which mainly relies on the deformation of the helmet shell and to its performance of collision energy absorption, thus
the compression of buffer layer. The lightweight structural of theoretical guidance for the helmet design of the buffer layer
EPS material has good performance of low density, high material can be obtained.
strength and better performance of energy absorption, and thus
it can act as an ideal cushioning material used at motorcycle II. CONSTRUCTION OF HELMET MODEL
helmet. The performance study for collision energy absorption
Geometric model of motocross-style helmet which applies
of EPS buffer layer is significant for assessing helmet safety
to M-type head model was built. The helmet is composed of 1 -
performance. As engineering applications of EPS foam are
housing, 2 - dual density EPS buffer layer, 3 - Comfort liner,
quite universal, a great deal of research on the physical and
which is shown in Figure 1. As ratio of stiffness and strength of
mechanical properties of EPS material has been done at home
FRP material is much higher than ordinary steel, and it also has
and abroad. However, due to the various project uses of EPS,
some other advantage, such as flexibility, corrosion-resistant
the research’s focus is different. Geotechnical engineering
and self- repair, etc. Therefore, the helmet shell was designed
problems have been studied by both domestic and international

978-0-7695-4975-0/13 $26.00 © 2013 IEEE 105

DOI 10.1109/MAEE.2013.36
to be made of FRP material, and the thickness is 2mm, it can 3.2 Judgment basis of head injury
not only effectively resist the penetration, but also avoid stress Head injury criteria (HIC, namely the Head Injury
concentration as its smooth surface and disperse impact Criterion) are from the Venn curve, HIC can be expressed by
capacity. The material of buffer layer was made of EPS formula (1) as following:
material; its density is designed to between 0.05̚0.08 g/cm3 1 t2
and the thickness is 10mm, the EPS buffer layer could play the HIC = max([ ³
t 2 − t 1 t1
a ( t ) dt ] 2 .5 • ( t 2 − t 1 )) (1)
role of detente and disperse impact forces. Comfort liner
ensures the comfort of the occupant when the helmet is wore. Where, a is the centre combined acceleration of the head
Helmet samples were also made according to the designed model during the impact, g is equal to 9.81m/s2, t1 is the
model. arbitrary time of collision, and t2 is the time after t1 and it make
the right side of equation obtains the maximum value; the final
form of HIC is a specified numerical value.
Although there is a lot of controversies about the head
injury criterion since its publication, the guidelines are the most
scientific and the most practical head injury criterion, thus it is
adopted as automotive safety regulation by many countries. At
the same time, it is also the current significant reference in
design of protection device of head (such as a safety helmet)
[11]
. Thus the head injury criteria and the center combined
acceleration are taken as the important indicators in assessing
the energy-absorption of helmet buffer layer, which is also
mainly discussed in this paper.
3.3 Test method
1 - shell, 2 - dual density EPS buffer layer ,
3 - comfort liner According to the collision test principles of the ECE
Fig. 1 Helmet structure diagram R22.05 the impact energy absorption of helmet buffer layer can
be appraised through the test. At first, the M-style standard
III. DESIGN OF EXPERIMENTS head model wearing helmet is fixed to the slider, and the slider
can fall along the rail freely at a certain height and impact the
3.1 The design of EPS buffer layer steel plate installed on firm pad. The initial impact velocity of
the helmet striking steel plate can be calculated from the height
EPS buffer layer is glued with the inner wall of the helmet of freely falling. Shock acceleration signal can be given by the
shell in order to anti-penetration and anti-disintegration; EPS acceleration sensor placed in the center of mass of the standard
buffer layer is mainly used to protect the head from injury head model; the diagram of helmet crash test is shown in
through absorbing the impact energy in the helmet collision. As Figure 2. According to the correlative principles of ECE
Brain is more susceptible to be injured when the impact R22.05 standard, test design on helmet impacting steel plate
happens on top of the head, so the top of the buffer layer is and test evaluation criteria are shown in Table 1. In this article
designed with a dual - density EPS material structure, thus the freely falling height is designed as 3.05 meters which is higher
variable density buffer layer can adapt better to the strength of than 3 meters, this is used to guarantee a certain margin. In
head and skull cap, and it can effectively reduce head injury addition, the test need meet some other requirements, such as,
and post-traumatic neurological disorders. The top of buffer high temperature processing of helmet used to simulate the true
layer is designed to be two layers which are shown as Figure 1; environment of hot weather in order to accord with the real
the two layers have different densities as ρ and ρ ; ρ is
㪈

collision, and before the experiment, the helmet samples need

designed to be 0.014 g/cm3. to be placed in roaster with the temperature of 50 ć and
Based on the helmet design and application experience, humidity of 65% and last for 4 to 6 hours.
factors that affect the energy absorption performance of the
buffer layer are the material selection, structure, thickness and
density of buffer layer. However, the thickness of the buffer
layer is generally difficult to be change because of the
restrictions of standard head model, while the density of the
material can be adjusted easily through the material process.
For example, the material density of the EPS is related to its
foam multiple. Four types of EPS buffer layer are designed in
this paper, they have different densities as 0.05, 0.06, 0.07 and
0.08 g/cm3 respectively, and the research on energy absorption
performance of EPS buffer layer with different densities is
developed through the helmet impact tests.
1 - Slider, 2 - head model, 3 – helmet sample, 4 - Tablet
Fig. 2 The diagram of helmet collision test

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 TABLE I. COLLISION TEST OF HELMET SAMPLE AND ITS EVALUATION CRITERIA BASED ON THE ECE R22.05
Monitoring Height of the The detection head model and
Anvil type times Impact velocity
points drop weight

Flat anvil before˄B˅

one time Each 7.5m/s˄+0.15 m/sˈ-0.0m/s
(steel rear˄R˅ 3.05m ISOM60: 5.6±0.16KG
point ˅
plate) top˄P˅

Evaluation criteria 1: Peak ACC does not exceed 275G;

Evaluation criteria 2: HIC does not exceed 2400;
Evaluation criteria : impact helmet is not seriously deformed

which even close to the maximum specified value of the

IV. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS AND ANALYSIS 275G in Table 1, so the selected density of 0.08g/cm3 is
clearly unreasonable. As EPS density is designed to be 0.06
4.1 The influences of density of EPS buffer layer to Peak g/cm3, its peak acceleration measured in the B, R are greater
ACC and HIC value than the test values corresponding to the density design of
In accordance with the design of experimental above, 0.05 g/cm3. Overall, however, crash test at monitoring point
four types of helmet samples with different EPS densities of P make the mass center of helmet model with EPS layer
0.05, 0.06, 0.07 and 0.08 g/cm3 were tested respectively; HIC density of 0.06 g/cm3 obtain the minimal peak acceleration.
values and peak accelerations at the R, B and P monitoring As shown in table 2, when the density of EPS buffer
point with different EPS densities are listed in table 2. When layer choose 0.06 g/cm3, the HIC values at the monitoring
the helmet impacts with the steel plate at the point B of point of R and P are minimum during the collision, and the
helmet, the peak acceleration of the head model HIC value measured at point B is 1433 which is over the
corresponding to the four types of EPS buffer layer with four HIC value corresponding to the density of 0.06 g/cm3(HIC
densities are all less than 200G, when the EPS density takes value is 1229). The test results show that EPS buffer layer
0.08g/cm3, peak acceleration of the head model is greater density of 0.06 g/cm3 is the most reasonable.
than 250G when the collision is at R, P point of the helmet,
TABLE II. HIC VALUES AND PEAK ACCELERATIONS AT THE R, B AND P MONITORING POINT
Monitoring
R B P
point
density ρ 0.05 0.06 0.07 0.08 0.05 0.06 0.07 0.08 0.05 0.06 0.07 0.08
ap(G) 171.5 181.5 199.3 250.9 159.8 178.5 191.6 198.5 230.8 207.5 226.4 277.9
HIC 1421 1219 1386 2386 1229 1433 1509 1730 2220 1968 2110 2653

According to the test data listed in Table 2, relationship

of EPS density with Peak ACC and HIC value can be 4.2 Energy absorption of EPS buffer layer in quasi-static
obtained by the fitting method based on formula (2), and the compression
relationship is shown in Figure 3. It shows that EPS material The typical constitutive model of stress and strain of the
density of about 0.06g/cm3 make the Peak ACC and HIC EPS foam are Gibson model [12], Rusch model [13] and Avalle
values get the best value (minimum) model [14]. They described the relations of stress - strain
Peak ACC ( or HIC ) = C 3 ρ 3 + C 2 ρ 2 + C 1 ρ + C 0 (2) under quasi-static compression of the material, which can
better reflect the influence of the foam density to the stress.
Figure 4 shows the stress - strain curve of different densities
of EPS buffer layer with Avalle model under the quasi- static
condition. As can be seen from Figure 3, the curve of stress -
strain is divided into short linear elastic region, the long
plateau region and the final stress densification zone with
sharply raised stress. In linear elastic region with small
strain, EPS material shows better flexibility. In the platform
area, the stress increases slowly with the growth of strain,
EPS buffer layer is compressed and deformed in order to
absorb the impact energy. In densification zone, the stress
increases rapidly with increasing strain, but the energy
Fig. 3 Relationship of EPS density between Peak ACC and HIC value absorption of EPS material in collision decreases as the
material structure is destroyed.

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 (W-) and energy absorbing rate (E-) for different densities
of EPS materials, energy absorbing rate is shown as formula
(4). After calculation, we concluded that the relationship of
W- for different densities can be described by formula (5)
and the related relationship of E- can be described by
formula (6). According to the comprehensive research based
on figure 4 and figure 5, the optimal density for EPS buffer
layer of helmet is 0.06g/cm3, which meet the topmost energy
absorption and the highest efficiency of energy absorption in
the peak strain of 2 for EPS.
ε
E = ( ³ σ (τ ) d τ ) / σ (ε ) (4)
0

㪮
Fig. 4 Stress - strain curve of EPS material with different densities under

㪇
㪅
㪊
㪊
㪎
㪈
㪅
㪇㫄
㪍㪸
quasi-static compression
= σ

㪜
㫏
(5)

㪜
㪇
㪅
㪊
㪊
㪎
㪇
㪅
㪇㫄
㪍㪸
The collision energy absorption performance of helmet
= σ

㪜
㫏
EPS buffer layer can be evaluated through material absorbs (6)
certain energy corresponding minimum stress of material, it
also can be assessed by the energy absorption efficiency, and
the ratio of the energy W is usually replaced by energy [9].
During the collision between the helmet sample with the
steel plate, the ratio of energy W absorbed by EPS buffer
layer corresponds to the area enclosed by the stress-strain
curve and the dotted line representing some stress and shown
in the figure 3, which corresponds to the formula (3). For a
special ratio of energy W, the peak stress corresponding to
different densities of EPS material are 1 ǃ 2 ǃ 3
respectively, for the smallest density of EPS material, peak
stress have been produced before the course that the ratio
energy was absorbed totally, so does the largest density of
EPS material, thus we can chose a optimal density between Fig. 5 Energy absorption (W-) and energy absorption rate (E-)
the two extremes, when it is in the smallest peak stress, it can
absorb the ratio energy totally, under this stress condition,
the collision energy absorption is best and optimal.
ε
W = ³0
σ (ε ) d ε (3)

4.3 The impact energy absorption of EPS buffer layer

At present, the energy absorbing property of helmet
EPS buffer layer can be assessed by the energy absorption
curve and energy absorbing rate, as the buffer curve is
related to drop height and material thickness, it is not
conducive to the comparison of energy absorption among
different materials. The strain rate effect wasn’t taken into
account in energy absorbing curve, and the material density
and strain rate effect are comprehensively taken into account (a) R point
into in the energy absorbing figure, thus the energy
absorbing characteristics of EPS material is reflected [15]. In
this paper, energy absorption figure and energy absorbing
rate figure were taken to study the property of impact energy
absorption corresponding to different densities of EPS buffer
layers. As is shown in figure 3, the shoulder of the energy
absorbing curve (the intersection of the dotted line) is the
optimal density of all the minimum densities with absorbing
the same amount energy. Combining with formula (3) and
(4), we can conclude that this point corresponds to the
topmost energy absorbing rate, and the correlative EPS
density is optimal. Figure 5 describes the energy absorption
(b) B point

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 EPS density of 0.06g/cm3 make the efficiency of energy
absorption is up to 48% and the performance of energy
absorption is best.
From the collision test and the analysis of mechanical
performance of EPS buffer layer, we can conclude that the
density of EPS material has a great effect on the energy
absorption in collision; therefore, grasping the relationship
between density and efficiency of energy absorption will
have the significant guiding effect on design of helmet EPS
buffer layer.
(c) P point VI. REFERENCES
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helmet falling from the height of 3 meters indicate that the

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