How many pounds per square inch does it take to crush a human skull?

Dear marit,

Thanks for this unusal question, to which there are several variables.
The skull in an individual of course is not uniform in shape or
thickness and of course skulls vary in these aspects in different
people, and so the amount of force to fracture or "crush" a human
skull varies on the particular skull and at what point the force is
applied. It also depends if the skull is with or without skin hair
etc....

However the links below help to answer your question.

"It only takes 33 ft pounds of energy to fracture a skull, or
approximately 398 inch pounds of energy"
http://www.eijkhout.net/rad/dance_other/health4.html

"It takes about 250 to 350 ft/pounds to fracture the skull, which is
close to the rib fracture energy above."
http://www.kenrahn.com/JFK/Issues_and_evidence/Frontal_shot(s)/Tobias_frontal_shots/Head_snap.html

"for a contact area ofapproximately 1 square inch (6.5 cm2) the
forcerequired to produce a clinically significant skullfracture in the
frontal area of the cadaver skull was twice that required in the
temporoparietal area."
**PDF DOCUMENT**  http://www.edc.gsph.pitt.edu/neurotrauma/thebook/Chap02.pdf


"a force of 73 Newtons is enough to cause a simple fracture, this
force is the equivalent of walking into something solid. An
unrestrained adult fall from standing has been shown to produce a
minimal force of 873 N which is more than enough to produce a skull
fracture."
http://www.portfolio.mvm.ed.ac.uk/studentwebs/session2/group62/head.htm

NOTE* to convert Newtons to pounds multiply by 0.2248 in the above
case 73 newtons=16.4104 and 873N=196.2504 lbs

So, the force required to crush a human skull is (aproximately)
between 16 and 196 pounds.

I hope this answers your question sufficiently.  If you need any
clarification please do not hesitate to ask.

THX1138

Search Strategy:
"skull fracture" "force required"
://www.google.com/search?q=+%22skull+fracture%22+%22force+required%22&hl=pt&lr=&as_qdr=all&start=20&sa=N