WWI helmets protect against shock waves just as well as modern designs

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Winston

Lorenzo von Matterhorn
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FEBRUARY 14, 2020
WWI helmets protect against shock waves just as well as modern designs

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-02-wwi-helmets-modern.html

Biomedical engineers from Duke University have demonstrated that, despite significant advancements in protection from ballistics and blunt impacts, modern military helmets are no better at protecting the brain from shock waves created by nearby blasts than their World War I counterparts. And one model in particular, the French Adrian helmet, actually performed better than modern designs in protecting from overhead blasts.

The research could help improve the blast protection of future helmets through choosing different materials, layering multiple materials of different acoustic impedance, or altering their geometry.

The results appeared online on February 13 in the journal PLOS ONE:


https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0228802

"While we found that all helmets provided a substantial amount of protection against blast, we were surprised to find that the 100-year-old helmets performed just as well as modern ones," said Joost Op 't Eynde, a biomedical engineering PhD student at Duke and first author of the study. "Indeed, some historical helmets performed better in some respects."

Researchers have only recently begun to study the brain damage a shock wave can cause on its own—and for good reason. Helmets were originally designed to protect from penetrating objects like bullets and shrapnel, and blast waves will kill through pulmonary trauma long before they cause even minor brain damage.

With the advent of body armor, however, soldiers' lungs are much more protected from such blasts than they used to be. This has caused the incidence of pulmonary trauma following a blast to drop far below that of brain or spine injuries in modern military conflicts, despite the difference in blast tolerance.

While there have been studies that suggest modern helmets provide a degree of protection from shock waves, no currently deployed helmet has been specifically designed for blast protection. And because soldiers today experiencing shock waves while wearing body armor aren't all that different from soldiers 100 years ago experiencing shock waves while in the trenches, Op 't Eynde decided to see if those old designs offered any lessons to be learned.

"This study is, to the best of our knowledge, the first to assess the protective capabilities of these historical combat helmets against blasts," said Op 't Eynde.

Working with Cameron "Dale" Bass, associate research professor of biomedical engineering at Duke, Op 't Eynde created a system to test the performance of World War I helmets from the United Kingdom/United States (Brodie), France (Adrian), Germany (Stahlhelm) and a current United States combat variant (Advanced Combat Helmet).

The researchers took turns placing different helmets on a dummy's head outfitted with pressure sensors at various locations. They then placed the head directly underneath a shock tube, which was pressurized with helium until a membrane wall burst, releasing the gas in a shock wave. The helmets were tested with shock waves of varying strength, each corresponding to a different type of German artillery shell exploding from a distance of one to five meters away.

The amount of pressure experienced at the crown of the head was then compared to brain injury risk charts created in previous studies. While all helmets provided a five-to-tenfold reduction in risk for moderate brain bleeding, the risk for someone wearing a circa-1915 French "Adrian" helmet was less than for any of the other helmets tested, including the modern advanced combat helmet.

"The difference a simple crest or a wider brim
[on the old French helmet - W] can make in blast protection, shows just how important this line of research could be," said Op 't Eynde, who initially came to Duke on a scholarship from the Belgian American Educational Foundation, which was established with funds from American relief efforts in Belgium during World War I. "With all of the modern materials and manufacturing capabilities we possess today, we should be able to make improvements in helmet design that protects from blast waves better than helmets today or 100 years ago."

wwihelmetspr.jpg


BAR means bare head - no helmet:

1-wwihelmetspr.jpg
 
Oldies but goodies. But the ole 30 06 will still go through the newest dragon scale like sweet creamery butter. Bring back the crests! High military style that invokes a real espre de corps. They will match nicely with the new retro Class A uniforms. A chrome Patton style with a gold Eagle wing Crest. Then just cover it for combat like the Bosche did with their Picklehaube. Ditch the kevlar and give them the cold steel. Keep up the scare! Putin's boys and the CHICOMS will run in fear when we give em a hefty baptism of fire.
 
Doesn't install a person with a lot of confidence that they haven't improved all that much in a hundred years. Better idea... Try to find peaceful resolutions to disagreements.

spaceballs-darkhelmet-schwartzring-700x350.jpg
 
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You want retro? Let's go really retro. Here are some weapons and helmets which were on show at a mediaeval display I saw last year:
020swords.jpg
The helmets on the right possess both a wide brim and a crest - just what the doctor ordered. (Another helmet being worn by one of the re-enactors was almost identical in style to what the standard British soldier was wearing in WW1, and for that matter WW2.)

Plenty of cold steel, too. They do not like it up them!
 
Doesn't install a person with a lot of confidence that they haven't improved all that much in a hundred years....

The article linked above summed up the study, but left some parts out. In the published paper linked, the researchers mentioned that helmet technology has improved in protecting from ballistics and blunt forces, just not injuries from shock waves. Shock wave injuries are still poorly understood, so it isn't surprising that protection is difficult. The study also only experimented with simulated overhead blasts, not shock waves coming from running over and IED or waves reflected off of another surface toward the victim. I also noticed they were looking for data that leads to cranial hemorrhage, but not other forms of TBI. Yes, they are related, but DAI (diffuse axonal injury) is one of the more severe brain injuries that people "survive" but can never live without 24/7 care.
 
The steel WWI helmets were based on Medieval designs Brodie - Chapels de fur and Stahlhelm - Salade. The Adrian was patterned after calvary and firefighting head gear.

The British tank crews had chain mail attachments to guard against nasty splinters.
 
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