The protective effect of carpet in indoor head traumatic accidents caused by fall

Abstract

Many accidents in which head trauma is caused by falling indoors have been reported. In this study, numerical simulation was used to quantitatively evaluate the protective effect of carpet against head trauma caused by fall accident. Four postures （faint, slip, trip, step down） of falling were assumed and simulated. The collision motion between the head and the floor was reproduced by using a whole body numerical model, then the obtained mechanical response of the head was input to a finite element human head model. The posture, translational and rotational velocity before the collision, translational and rotational acceleration of the heads during the collision were input. Injury risks of skull fracture, cerebral contusion, concussion are evaluated by using the calculated mechanical parameter. For each posture of falling, three types of floor structures （flooring, carpet and flooring, underfelt and carpet） were simulated. The results showed that in all injury risk, falling to the flooring was the highest and falling to the combination with underfelt and carpet was the lowest. By comparing the results of the various head injury risks, the use of carpets has the effect of reducing the risk of head injury and carpets with high cushioning properties have high protection performance.