Numerical modelling and experimental analysis of the passenger side airbag deployment in out-of-position

ABSTRACT

In recent years, many accidents happened with passengers who were out of position when their airbag deployed. Therefore, new safety regulations have come into effect and an airbag now has to meet several requirements that concern out of positioning. In meeting these requirements, simulations of folding and deploying airbags are very useful and are widely used. This paper presents a simulation method for the deploying airbags using three materials in different working conditions. The main aim of this study is evaluate the performance of deploying of passenger side airbag using finite-element methods (FEMs). The model has been validated with experimental tests specifically designed for this task. Although the analysis was limited to linear elastic model, excellent agreements were obtained.

KEYWORDS:

• Airbags simulation
• out-of-position
• passive safety
• numerical analysis
• modelling

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to acknowledge the Applied Mechanics Department (DMA) at Franche-Comté University for support of this work.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.