Abstract
Soccer is the most popular sport in the world. One of the manoeuvres in a soccer game is known as heading, in which the player uses the head to hit the ball. There have been concerns as to whether this purposeful head impact may lead to brain injury. Studies have shown some compelling evidence that purposeful heading of a soccer ball may cause adverse effect to the brain. One of the contributing factors that may lead to head injury when heading a soccer ball is the improper heading technique. This study investigates the effect of ball impact angle on the brain deformation, a parameter used to evaluate head injury. A series of finite element simulations were performed with various ball inbound velocities and impact angles. It was found that heading at an angle resulted in higher brain deformation as opposed to central impact heading. The impact angle of 45° was found to produce the highest brain deformation. This study shows that a proper heading technique is essential to prevent brain injury when performing soccer heading.
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Acknowledgements
The authors would like to acknowledge Universiti Malaysia Pahang for providing the funding for this study under the grant RDU1803185.
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Hassan, M.H.A., Mohd Anni, M.A., Tan, F.Y., Johari, N.H., Omar, M.N. (2022). The Influence of Ball Impact Angle on the Brain Deformation in Soccer Heading: A Finite Element Analysis. In: Hassan, M.H.A., et al. Human-Centered Technology for a Better Tomorrow. Lecture Notes in Mechanical Engineering. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-4115-2_25
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-4115-2_25
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