Design of a pedestrian protection airbag system using experiments

Abstract

The safety of vehicles has been studied in the past on the basis of the safety of passengers. Recently, pedestrian safety has also attracted attention. The pedestrian protection performance of vehicles has gradually improved but is still not sufficiently good. Devices such as the pop-up hood and the pedestrian protection airbag system are generally used to protect pedestrians. Since these devices are relatively newer than other parts of an automobile, a standard design process has not yet been rigorously established. There have been studies that demonstrated how to determine the design parameters of the devices using computer simulations. In this research, a novel design process for a pedestrian protection airbag is proposed, which utilizes the results of the experiments. Some parameters of the pedestrian protection airbag system, which cannot be determined by simulations, are selected and obtained using experiments. They are the folding method of the airbag, the height type of the airbag and the inflator type. The design results using simulations are incorporated in the initial design of the proposed process. The experimental facilities are prepared on the basis of a mid-sized passenger vehicle, and the headform tests are performed according to the protocol of the European New Car Assessment Programme test. The proposed design process selects the rolling and folding method, the small height type and the bottom spurt inflator type. The resultant design is evaluated and analysed using experiments, and it is found to be satisfactory.