Citation

Noureddine A, Digges KH, Eskandarian A, Bedewi N. Int. J. Crashworthiness 1998; 3(3): 237-248.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1998, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

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PMID

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Abstract

Although airbags have proven to be effective in high severity crashes, they can cause unintended injuries in certain deployment scenarios in low severity crashes. Most airbag-induced injuries occur while airbag is still inflating, particularly, for unbelted occupants who may be closer to the airbag at the time of deployment. Many factors in airbag deployment affect the severity of injuries that need to be analyzed. In this paper the effect of occupant position and airbag inflation parameters on driver injury measures is investigated using finite element simulation models of a vehicle, airbag, and Hybrid III dummy. The influence of steering column characteristics as well as the relative velocity (Delta V) between the dummy and vehicle interior is also investigated. Simulations are conducted at both static and dynamic test environments for two different critical dummy vertical positions and for two additional horizontal alignments. Airbag deployment is considered for three different mass flow rate curves. The results indicate that the vertical and horizontal positions of the dummy are extremely important variables. The results also indicate that the presence of a delta V increases the values of critical injury but the influence of steering column stiffness is greater.

Language: en