Date of Award
8-2025
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Science (MS)
Department
Bioengineering
Committee Chair/Advisor
Dr. John DesJardins (Co-Committee Chair)
Committee Member
Dr. Gregory Batt (Co-Committee Chair)
Committee Member
Dr. Jiro Nagatomi
Abstract
As one of the most widely played and watched contact sports in the United States, football presents a significant risk of blunt chest trauma. Thus, effective chest protection is essential to prevent rare but fatal injuries like commotio cordis. Despite this, current test methods for certifying chest protective equipment fail to account for injury metrics relevant to commotio cordis events. Recent literature identifies rib deformation and viscous criterion as critical predictors of commotio cordis, yet these metrics are not adequately addressed in the existing testing standard. Furthermore, this standard exclusively assesses chest gear specific to baseball and lacrosse through projectile impacts, thereby neglecting body-to-body collisions that are highly relevant in contact sports such as football. This study presents the development of a testing method that simulates shoulder-to-chest impacts via a pneumatic linear impactor, and the evaluation of football chest protectors, with the goal of informing cardiac safety for football athletes. This statistically validated test method considers two impact locations vulnerable to commotio cordis at minimum and moderate football tackle testing speeds to evaluate chest forces, rib deflections, and viscous criterion values of seven different football shoulder pad protector combinations on a Hybrid III Upper Torso Assembly. Additionally, this study investigates the quasi-static behavior of the chest to evaluate the predictive capability of quasi-static tests for the dynamic performance of these protector combinations. Researchers show that impacts at the moderate football tackle testing velocity resulted in elevated injury metrics, and the viscous criterion metric displays trends similar with those predicted from quasi-static stiffness testing. Ultimately, this study emphasizes the need for a method of certifying football chest protective equipment against commotio cordis through simulated football shoulder-to-chest impacts to reduce chest forces, rib deformations, and viscous criterion values. In pursuit of this aim, a statistically validated test method was developed that effectively differentiates between protector combinations, impact locations, and impact speeds, and is recommended for use in the certification of football chest protective equipment.
Recommended Citation
Henline, Bianca J., "The Development and Application of a Method to Simulate Commotio Cordis Inducing Impacts for the Evaluation of Football Chest Protective Equipment" (2025). All Theses. 4570.
https://open.clemson.edu/all_theses/4570