Experimental Analysis of Human Head Dynamic Response and Injury under High-G Landing Shock

This study looks at how the human head reacts and gets injured during high-G landing impacts in spacecraft return capsules. We used a vertical drop tower system for the experiments. A standard crash test dummy, called the Hybrid III 50th, was used to imitate how astronauts sit during landing. We applied two common safety standards—the Head Injury Criterion (HIC) and the 3 ms cumulative acceleration rule—to measure head response under high-G impacts. The results show several things. First, head acceleration increases linearly as seat acceleration increases. Second, the peak total acceleration of the head is much higher than the seat acceleration. In particular, acceleration in the X and Z directions is much stronger than in the Y direction. Third, when seat acceleration went over 47.71 g, HIC exceeded the safe limit of 700, and the 3 ms head acceleration also passed the 80 g limit. This suggests that 40 g should be considered a safe upper limit for seat acceleration. This work provides experimental support for improving landing systems to protect astronauts’ heads during high-G impacts.