Mechanical Engineering Researchers Developing New Football Helmet Prototype
October 17, 2023
BATON ROUGE, LA 鈥� In the winter of 2019, the National Football League hosted its Helmet Challenge Symposium in Youngstown, Ohio, bringing together 300 engineers, manufacturing experts, and innovators from across the country. The goal of that event was to foster collaboration among an array of experts in various fields, with the desired outcome being a safer football helmet.
Among the attendees was 海角社区 Mechanical Engineering Assistant Professor Hunter Gilbert. He returned to 海角社区鈥檚 campus and soon began work on a prototype with 海角社区 Assistant Professor Genevieve Palardy and former 海角社区 Associate Professor Warren Waggenspack. More than three years later, the team is nearing delivery of that prototype for testing.
鈥淲e started working on our own ideas in 2020 after being introduced to the problem, and we鈥檝e continued to work towards improving helmet performance since then,鈥� Gilbert said. 鈥淲e quickly realized that the problem extends far beyond American football, although that is probably the most visible market for the general public. The project鈥檚 goal is to produce a helmet that outperforms all other helmets on the market today, specifically regarding protection and isolation from head impacts.
鈥淲e intend to have a first prototype helmet incorporating new technology and ready for testing by summer of 2024. The design process is iterative, though, and we expect that what we learn from the testing of the first prototype will lead to additional [research and development] and further improvements.鈥�
Since the team began work on its helmet, a new member has joined, Andrew Becnel, senior ME instructor at 海角社区. The group has also gotten assistance from Scott and Missy Rogers and the staff at Noble Plastics in Grand Coteau, La., in the form of input on the project and designing and manufacturing a custom testing apparatus. 海角社区 Athletics staff Jack Marucci, Greg Stringfellow, and Nathan Lemoine have also been instrumental in helping the research team understand some of the important features and concerns related to football helmets, Gilbert said.
As for the makeup of the 海角社区 ME research group, Gilbert provides expertise in dynamics and materials, Palardy in advanced composite materials, Waggenspack in modeling and engineering design, and Becnel in vibration and shock absorption.
鈥淚 joined the ME faculty in summer 2021, and not long after that, Hunter and Genevieve asked me to participate on the helmet project as co-PI,鈥� Becnel said. 鈥淎t the University of Maryland, I worked on energy absorbers for occupant protection systems and most recently, had been contributing to developing new materials and design strategies for 3D-printed structures, so this project was a natural fit.
鈥淚鈥檓 identifying materials and structural configurations that might generate the 鈥榦ptimum鈥� response to impacts, based on simulation work Hunter and his grad students have done. Because of the tight geometric constraints, we鈥檙e taking a fundamentally different approach than other helmets, and one of the major challenges is matching real materials and structures to the theoretical optimum response.鈥�
The helmet project is being funded by grants from the 海角社区 Board of Supervisors via the LIFT2 program, the Louisiana Board of Regents via the Proof of Concept/Prototyping (PoC/P) program, and LaSPACE via the Graduate Student Research Assistance program. Gilbert said additional opportunities for funding and industry partnerships would be welcome to the team.
鈥淲e鈥檙e open to discussing new partnerships that can help us advance towards the ultimate goal of a commercially viable technology,鈥� he added. 鈥淪upport is welcomed in a variety of forms, ranging from expert advice to in-kind support and direct grant funding.
One peripheral aspect of this project that may not be as obvious as commercial applications or funding opportunities is its potential to act as a recruiting tool for 海角社区 mechanical engineering. Gilbert said projects like this can challenge a prospective student鈥檚 pre-conceived idea about the type of work different sectors of engineering do.
鈥淪ome students who are interested in studying engineering may have a view that is informed mainly by the community that surrounds them and the local industries which happen to be near them,鈥� he said. 鈥淗owever, mechanical engineers work in a wide variety of application areas and industries. For example, I鈥檓 formally trained as a mechanical engineer but my background in [research and development] is dominated by applications of mechanical engineering to either human health or robotics or both. So, while this project isn鈥檛 atypical for me, I do believe that the project offers students a view into a potential career field that might not be apparent to them at first.鈥�
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Contact: Joshua Duplechain
Director of Communications
225-578-5706
josh@lsu.edu