
NFL Releases Finite Element Helmet Models - wyldfire
https://www.playsmartplaysafe.com/resource/finite-element-models/
======
kingkongjaffa
You really need accurate material models for this to be any use. Without being
able to validate the baseline condition using the same non-linear,
anisotropic, material behaviour profiles, there's no way to develop new
geometry and/or use novel materials, and actually prove it's better than
before.

They would ideally release their own, repeatable analysis files of their own
benchmark condition.

I suspect the best helmet for blunt impacts is probably a one/few-time use
deal with crumple zones to absorb the energy of the impact and increase the
time of the impact. After it's crumpled you would have to swap it out for a
new helmet.

Curious why they wouldn't just drop their funding on a grant for research in
any top10 mechanical engineering department - the knowledge to develop this is
readily available and the problem space is a fairly solved one. That being
said Tesla has improved crash safety over what decades of safety engineers
could do so maybe there is always space for improvement.

~~~
save_ferris
The issue with the crash safety comparison is that helmets need to withstand
many impacts before being replaced since it would be crazy to replace a helmet
every play or two.

One possible answer is that, in order to truly solve this problem, the sport
must do away with facemasks or helmets altogether.

Mike Ditka has long proposed removing the facemask, claiming that it has
encouraged players to weaponize their heads for hits without fear of injury
[0].

Researchers in the medical community have been echoing this as well, arguing
that helmets do far more damage than they prevent [1].

More and more, the league, and the sport in general, look to treat the
"symptoms" of this issue rather than addressing the root cause.

[0] [http://bleacherreport.com/articles/495469-nfl-helmet-to-
helm...](http://bleacherreport.com/articles/495469-nfl-helmet-to-helmet-hits-
mike-ditkas-solution-get-rid-of-helmets) [1]
[http://natajournals.org/doi/pdf/10.4085/1062-6050-51.1.06?co...](http://natajournals.org/doi/pdf/10.4085/1062-6050-51.1.06?code=nata-
site)

~~~
vermontdevil
Rugby does not have a helmet (except for the padded ones) and yet they still
have concussion issues. I think there’s no clear answer although I agree about
removing face mask.

[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC155428/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC155428/)

~~~
poulsbohemian
I played organized American Football from the time I was a kid. Went to at the
time the biggest high school in the state. I don't recall ever having any kind
of head injuries despite getting hit a lot. Went out in college to try Rugby
as a club sport. First practice, horrific concussion. I am a sample size of
one, but I'd much rather my son play American Football than Rugby. If he gets
to the college or pro level, then we can have a John Urshel type conversation
about whether to continue.

~~~
beachwood23
One thing to consider is the way you learned to tackle. Tackling technique is
very different. If you used the same "Hit em hard" tackling that is common in
American Football, I'm not surprised you had a concussion your first day of
rugby practice. Your tackling technique didn't emphasize head protection.

~~~
poulsbohemian
I disagree that American Football tackling technique doesn't emphasize head
protection. That is literally the first thing that every coach, every parent,
every referee says to kids from the moment they start playing. It's ritual,
IE: "low man wins," "keep your head up". An unsafe tackle is a pretty good way
to get benched.

------
matte_black
Only thing safer helmets will do is encourage players to hit harder and
harder, until someone really gets killed.

I hope one day I will get to see the end of football. Why would any parent
enroll their child in this sport?

~~~
gldalmaso
There are several sports than can be dangerous and involve risk of death, like
basically all forms of racing, climbing, endurance, etc. As long as
practitioners are educated and consenting, I don't see a problem.

The problem is if the those responsible for the athletes are not upfront on
the risks, or if the athlete is not able to make a proper judgement to
consent, like a child.

~~~
jacobsenscott
In all the sports you named - brain injury is not a regular part of the sport
- it happens when something goes wrong. In football players suffer mild
traumatic brain injury in every game, as a regular part of game play.

~~~
rkangel
While this seems to be the likely scenario, this isn't actually known for sure
yet. We know that every concussion causes cumulative damage, but it is unclear
what level of sub-concussive hit causes cumulative damage? It's almost
certainly not 'none', but we don't know whether it's a light tap, or an almost
concussive hit. For example, it could be that concussion is a red herring and
certain angles and acceleration profiles are the issue and these don't
correlate at all with concussion.

------
mfrisbie
Jerry Seinfeld said it best:

"Now why did we invent the helmet? Well, because we were participating in many
activities that were cracking our heads. We looked at the situation. We chose
not to avoid these activities, but to just make little plastic hats so that we
can continue our head-cracking lifestyles."

------
asmithmd1
Not only does the company that developed the models retain all ownership, they
attach a kind of viral ownership to anything developed using them:

"if you develop an Improvement based on or utilizing the Content, and you
...agree that you will not assert any claim, including any claim of
infringement, against Biocore for our use of any Improvement"

------
jitl
For those wondering what a finite element model is:

> FE models are computational tools developed by breaking an object down into
> simpler parts (finite elements) and assembling them into a larger system of
> equations to model an entire structure—this facilitates the efficient
> analysis of design changes to that structure. FE models have been used to
> improve designs in many engineered products, including those in the
> aeronautics and automotive industries.

~~~
Fenrisulfr
So they used mechanical engineering techniques you would learn junior year or
earlier. I'm sure they used FEA on earlier helmets as well. This just sounds
fancier. The next version is probably going to be called the DiffEq models.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finite_element_method](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finite_element_method)

~~~
jwagenet
These FE models are almost certainly much more complicated than those tested
in a junior year course. Anyone rig up a simulation and get some sort of
result, but to get an accurate simulation result for a complex system like
this requires thoughtful constraints, assumptions, and, as others mentioned,
accurate material representations, among other things. FEA is a powerful tool,
but much more complicated than providing a mesh and hitting go.

------
graeham
Its great that the NFL is supporting biomechanics research (and will hopefully
help the sport as well).

However, while the models are open source they seem to be created for LS-DYNA,
which is a fairly expensive program. I'm not aware of any good open source
finite element packages, but I bet this will limit uptake of their models.

------
lev99
The $60million dollar in funding shows the NFL is taking the issue more
seriously than it ever has. I suspect there are individuals in the NFL
organization that care about the health of their players, but most individuals
see this as good PR and risk mitigation. If the NFL does nothing to address
it's safety profile they are vulnerable to external regulations.

I'm unsure if this sport can be played safely with any equipment, and
playsmartplaysafe.com does little to assure me new changes to helmets are
coming to sharply reduce concussions. It does show me that the NFL is open to
changes in their helmet design. I'd be interesting in listening to people
active in the helmet industry, physicists and doctors about this new platform.

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notadoc
Sorry, but I really don't think fancier helmet padding is the answer to the
CTE, concussion, head/neck/spine injury problem. You have to change the game
to stop the type of head-leading and head-targeting hits that are glorified in
the current model of the sport.

And yes, you can still easily tackle without ramming your helmeted skull into
someone elses head. Just watch Rugby, or any kids play pick-up football on a
field, both are entirely without pads and helmets, and tackling is a major
part of the experience.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMHRZ8LzS7Q](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMHRZ8LzS7Q)

------
pauljaworski
I feel like removing helmets from the game entirely would actually be safer
than improving helmets. The helmet just creates this false sense of safety
that encourages using your head as a point of contact.

~~~
SPBesui
Lots of people agree with you, including one of the greatest NFL wide
receivers: [https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2012/12/04/hines-
ward-...](https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2012/12/04/hines-ward-if-you-
want-to-prevent-concussions-take-the-helmet-off/)

------
slg
Safer helmets can do only so much as they are mostly a protection from
external trauma. Little can be done to address the simple physics of inertia
that causes the brain to crash into the skull due to sudden acceleration in
any direction. The only thing that can drastically reduce that trauma is to
make rule changes to the game to avoid the type of collisions that cause that
acceleration.

~~~
Pulcinella
If helmet size was no obstacle, could you add a thick inner layer of much
softer foam to help gradually slow down the skull so the brain would crash
into a suddenly stopped skull?

~~~
joncrane
There have been a couple (or more) guys throughout the years that designed and
implemented their own extra cushioning on their helmets, like this:
[http://www.helmethut.com/DrDelrye/Dr102808a.jpg](http://www.helmethut.com/DrDelrye/Dr102808a.jpg)

The extra foam was always on the outside, I believe. Not sure how well it
worked.

------
ypeterholmes
But the helmets themselves are still hard as can be. Honest question: why not
replace a traditional style of helmet with a larger, inflated style bubble
that in addition to protecting the head, would not itself produce any sort of
large impact force?

~~~
spectra72
They tried something like that. The Kazoo Helmet. It had the unfortunate
propensity to briefly stick to an opposing helmet during a collision rather
than slide off the other helmet's hard surface causing a wrenching of the
neck.

------
alkonaut
I read somewhere a lot of the concussions in football are _not_ due to blunt
hits to the head of the kind helmets can stop, but simply from extreme
accelerations (such as after a big hit to the upper body) throwing the brain
around inside the skull?

If that’s really the case then the troubling conclusion might be that the game
is very hard to make safe through technology.

------
mikestew
Summarizing: "Because this activity is so dangerous, and results in many head
injuries, we've spent $60 million developing a framework for manufacturers to
make helmets that will mitigate the injuries from the this entirely voluntary
activity."

Umm, has anyone considered just not doing this activity? I don't mean to be
trite, but that's what it looks like from the perspective of one who has
little interest in football. If so much protection is required to not turn
participants into literal mental cases, the logical next step would be...

Sure, the same could be said about, say, motorcycling. But at least my
motorcycle takes me places. OTOH, no one is paying millions in broadcast
rights so that people can watch me ride a motorcycle on TV.

~~~
drunner
You aren't going to get the activity of football to go away even if it is
risky and bad idea for ones health. Just look at all the dumb stuff our
country does already.

To pose a different question, I always wonder if this is the wrong direction.
Why not remove the helmets altogether? Or go back to the leather ones? Has
their been any comparative studies from head injuries back before the plastic
shell was introduced? Or perhaps relativeness to Rugby head injuries?

~~~
tfandango
I have paid for season tickets to college football for the past 18 years.
Recently I've been reading more and more about this problem and I feel guilty
for contributing to injury of players, willful participants or not. I'm
considering not renewing and not watching, and I think we'll see the end of
football (as we know it anyway) in our time.

However I do find the strategy and team aspect of the game compelling. I
wonder if it's possible to take the violence out and retain the
tactical/athletic aspects that make it interesting to watch.

~~~
alexchamberlain
As someone who has no knowledge of the American version, I wonder if the
actual play could just be simulated? For a noob, how much is skill on the
players part Vs strategy?

~~~
tfandango
That's one thing that makes me wonder about viability w/o violence. The
athletic ability of the player to take a hit and keep going, or break/slip out
of a tackle, or make a perfect throw/catch etc is quite astounding.

More interesting is the subtle strategic parts that are easy to overlook: how
you line up a offence/defense (coach), play calling (coach), decision making
(players/coach), reading offensive/defensive schemes and adjusting (players),
etc. etc.

One thing I think is really unique (maybe I'm wrong about this) is that it's a
team sport, half of the game is played by the other half of the team, each
depending on the other to put them in a good position.

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timeisapear
The model of the helmet for use in concussion studies is only as good as your
model for the (more complex) system of human skin, skull, and brain suspended
in cerebrospinal fluid.

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jacobsenscott
It doesn't take much to cause mild traumatic brain injury, and no amount of
helmet research will change that. This is safety theater.

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cascom
Won't better helmets just lead to harder hits? Go back to soft helmets and
behavior will change...

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neo4sure
Can the NFL defy the laws of physics?

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werber
I thought they ripped off Xenith for a second before realizing this is a
Xenith product.

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frockington
The NFL would rather do anything than actually enforce the steroid policy

~~~
mi100hael
If they crack down, players will just find new ways to cheat. It's whack-a-
mole, and none of the fans actually care, so why bother?

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dopeboy
Here I was getting excited for something related to react-helmet.

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socratewasright
All the high impact sports (ie football, rugby, boxing, wrestling) feel like a
relic of times past. I hope eventually VR reaches a point where the players
get to perform on a virtual arena while their physical bodies are inside a
simulation room.

Sensor suits like those used to enable motion capture [0] and some
multidirectional treadmill [1] would enable the same activities in a much
safer environment.

[0]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOWS8K-jMGg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOWS8K-jMGg)
[1]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEhwLRX4m2s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEhwLRX4m2s)

