Assessment of Nanobag as a New Safety System in the Frontal Sled Test

Abstract

Objective: The future mobility challenges lead to considering new safety systems to protect vehicle passengers in non-standard and complex seating configurations. The objective of this study is to assess the performance of a brand new safety system called nanobag and to compare it to traditional airbag performance in the frontal sled test scenario. Methods: The nanobag technology is assessed in the frontal crash test scenario and compared with the standard airbag by numerical simulation. The previously identified material model is used to assemble the nanobag numerical model. The paper exploits an existing validated human body model to assess the performance of the nanobag safety system. Using both the new nanobag and the standard airbag, the sled test numerical simulations with the variation of human bodies were performed in 30 km/h and 50 km/h frontal impacts. Results: The sled test results for both the nanobag and the standard airbag based on injury criteria show a good and acceptable performance of the nanobag safety system compared to the traditional airbag. Conclusions: The results show that the nanobag system’s performance is comparable to the standard airbag’s, which means that, thanks to the design, the nanobag safety system has high potential and an extended application for multi-directional protection against impact.