Author : Anup R Chavan, Aditya Tembe, Shrinivas Kulkarni and Dr. A S Reddy

The rising fatalities from head injuries in road accidents highlight the need for effective and sustainable protective gear. Conventional helmets made from Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS), Polycarbonate (PC), Polystyrene, and ABS+PC plastics, while providing safety, are bulky, uncomfortable in hot climates, and harmful to the environment due to their non-biodegradability. To address these concerns, this study focuses on developing an eco-friendly helmet using bio-composite materials. A helmet was designed in SolidWorks with aerodynamic and aesthetic improvements and analyzed using ANSYS Workbench. Fabrication was done through a wet hand layup process using a white cement mould, with jute fiber as reinforcement and biodegradable Fevicol resin as the binder, forming an 8 mm thick laminate cured at room temperature. In static testing, the helmet withstood the BIS standard maximum impact force of 19.5 kN before showing cracks. Dynamic analysis using Explicit Dynamics in ANSYS recorded von-Mises stresses of 5.02 MPa at 50 km/h, 8.13 MPa at 60 km/h, and 9.11 MPa at 70 km/h. These results suggest that bio-composite helmets can be a sustainable and effective alternative to traditional helmets, offering strength and durability while reducing environmental impact.

Keywords: Bio-composite helmet, Natural fiber reinforcement, Sustainable materials, Impact resistance, Compression strength, Eco-friendly fabrication