Posts Tagged ‘auto racing helmets’

Racing Helmets

Racing Helmets

By Admin

fox racing helmet

The problem of racing helmets is not that of a standard inelastic collision, but now  the important is how to muffle energy when got a momentum, and how to reduce the impact of the head inside the racing helmets when the pressure happen out of your control. The difficult is how to keep the racing helmets weight still light so it can’t make injury your neck in a crash (HANS device helps solve the problem).

There is one amazing story on formula 1 about the racing helmets, who driven by Felipe Massa that crash by 1 kg spring from Barrichello’s car in the racing helmets (at speed about 160 mph), although it doesn’t have good records due to motor sport history. The racing helmets that they use, are originally same when play polo, is the one reason in a key death in the US that started the making of today’s safety racing helmets.

The Sports Car Club of America is the first that suggest the seat belts in automobile competition in 1954, and there is

auto racing helmet

an SCCA member that started the Snell Memorial Foundation in 1957 to provide crash test for racing helmets used for automobile racing after the fatal accident that make Pete Snell death. You can see the crash in their page about the history of the organization and its current activities, discusses the effect of a crash, and shows the sort of testing that goes make the certified a racing helmets. The photo in bottom shows a sample drop test of a racing helmets that happened to Massa.

auto racing helmets

The Massa accident is close to the test. Crash in the head by 1 kg spring at a high speed about 160 mph will make a fatal effect without a racing helmets, even if the springs were ward by car nose and the bolster beside the cockpit. Even the racing helmets were past the ultimate test, effect of impact is the edge of the front. You can see the effect in AP photo in this news article. High resolution images of racing helmets and eye or head injury are available on google if you search it.

The Physics

A problem about the collision of object with the racing helmets are out of your control. The impact of momentum object are abstract. The power transferred to your head and racing helmets is something out of your control, but it depend on some factors like the angle of object that you can’t do much for this factor. Elastic material makes the impact power decrease before come to your head, so racing helmets design also can help a bit, but physics puts a lower limit on what engineering can do to solve this problem.

race car helmets

The number of momentum that transferred to the racing helmets is what we called ‘impulse’. You also can reduce the injury if the helmet or its material is soft enough to increase the safety inside the racing helmets, by reduce the force impact to the head. This is also the function of seat belts and other safety equipments, but racing helmets is the only one that can protect you from object on the road.

The racing helmets had to protect an artificial skull, to protect your skull. Even the impact come was right at the edge of the eye socket, the racing helmets that Massa wearing did an amazing job. It makes that fragments from the helmet or visor hit his eye, although the damage can be a fracture as the racing helmets hit his head. This is the other job of helmet has to do absorb the energy and distribute the impact to entire head. Massa’s racing helmets just shown perform in this task. He still had a little fracture as well as an impact from forces on it.

It seems he also had a fracture at the base skull, which can be handled with a HANS device. His speed 120 mph impact with tire barrier must not affect this,  so that might happen because an unanticipated motion of the racing helmets from the spring impact.

Check out my other information on car racing equipment