Ice Rink Protection Systems

Ice Rink Protection Systems: Improve and Apply a Numerical Model to Gain Insight in the Safety of Ice Rink Protection Systems

Bruinsma, Y.

Veeger, H.E.J. (mentor)

Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering

Biomechanical Engineering

Biomechanical Design – Sports Engineering

2017-05-12

Many falls occur in speed skating, most of which end up in protective padding that is placed along the ice rink. In this research project a testing method was established that can be used to test the influence of different padding parameters on the performance of the padding in relation to the skaters’ injury risks. An existing numerical model was updated and validated by comparing three simulations of the model to real impact scenarios. Because the validation tests resembled the real impact scenarios quite well, the model is deemed suitable for performing more padding tests. Furthermore, tests were done with variable air pressure and cover friction. Injury criteria for the head, neck and spine were measured. The HIC, Nkm and CTI did not show a clear correlation between one of the variables and any of the injury criteria. They did give an impression of the possible severity of the incurred injury in that impact scenario. A threshold value of 700 for the HIC, corresponding to a 30% risk of incurring an AIS ≥ 2 head injury, was exceeded by 70% of the measured values. Also quite an amount of Nkm and CTI values were above their threshold value of 1.0, which corresponds to a 25% risk of incurring an AIS ≥ 3 injury. These high injury criterion values may point towards the high risk of skaters of incurring severe injuries. However, the large amount of high values is not in proportion to the amount of severe injuries that is incurred in reality. This may be explained by the fact that a real skater can react earlier and more active to the impact than the model can.

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:629da23d-4a61-4910-b8d7-b270848d444d

2022-05-12

Student theses

master thesis

(c) 2017 Bruinsma, Y.